


Forging the Way

by whiteraven1606



Series: Three [17]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death Fix, Culture Shock, Demisexuality, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Dreamsharing, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kidnapping, Missing Scene, Multi, Near Death Experiences, Original Character(s), Past Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protectiveness, Rescue, Rescue Missions, Slow Burn, That's Not How The Force Works, Threesome - F/M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:42:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 41,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23746267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiteraven1606/pseuds/whiteraven1606
Summary: Trying to keep a fifty-year old child out of Imperial hands shouldn't be such a mess. How is it this much of a mess?Also, why does Paz have 20 armored time traveling Stormtrooper children insisting they are going to the Battle of Scarif? How did this mangled ship crash that Din calls his life become this much of a mess?
Relationships: Cara Dune/The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV), The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)/Cara Dune/Paz Vizla, The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)/Paz Vizla
Series: Three [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/385267
Comments: 147
Kudos: 180





	1. Forge in the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for myself because I wanted to save Chirrut Îmwe and the rest of Rogue One without changing the way the Original Trilogy goes. I gave it a lot of thought and decided on time travel. To which my friend that I run ideas by got very annoyed at. There's no time travel in Star Wars, she said. I said, Well, they moved matter with the Force across space which also means time in the last movie. She then got a headache and I had to feed her some candy.
> 
> Point is, this is one of my wild messes that if you are willing to follow along, I hope you'll have fun reading about how characters deal with a bunch of tiny former Stormtrooper children that have given themselves a mission.
> 
> This assumes you've seen The Mandalorian first and second season and Rogue One. If you don't want to read the rest of the Three series that intros the ex-Stormtrooper time traveling kids you don't have to, just know that you'll learn about them as the Mandalorians learn and there isn't a huge info dump anywhere within the story.
> 
> Yes, every character I like is going to live. Which includes Kuiil, IG-11, unnamed Mandlorians, and when we get there all of Rogue One. Just because I'm a little done with death these days. Tags will be added as needed.

****

The Armorer's dream of the Forge in a field of stars had been a constant in her life. Even long before it became her Forge to protect. She knew she slept, but this was her dream of peace. She sat at her low table and looked out over the expanse of space surrounding her Tribe. The soft glow of each of her people warmed her even as the sharp glow of Din moved steadily away from the Forge.

The young man was doing well for the Tribe, though the latest group he'd fallen in with had her wary. The sharp toothed woman that Din had described had her concerned. She knew Din was capable, but that made it no easier to see him off into danger, regardless of the rewards he brought to the Tribe.

The star field flared above and between Din's position and her own.

The Armorer stood up and moved forward a few steps before stopping. There had never before been anything to disturb her peace in these dreams. She frowned as a small child in star-speckled black armor plunged down from the stars above and seemed to land at the level of her Forge.

"Ooow." The child stood up in the expanse of the star field and huffed as she brushed herself off. She looked around herself for a moment before a helmet appeared at her feet. "There you are." She took the helmet and tucked it under one arm before turning towards the Forge. "Hello."

The Armorer tilted her head. "Hello?" She studied the child's armor. It was shaped very like Stormtrooper armor, but instead of the trademark white, it was covered in a dark star field that faded it into the background unless you kept a careful eye on it. "No one ever appears to speak to me even though this is my dream of peace."

The child nodded as she turned to watch Din's light for a time. "Peace is nice." She walked to the edge of the Forge and looked over the lights that were the Armorer's Tribe. "You protect them?"

"Yes, it is my honor to do so." She gestured to her low meeting table. "Will you sit?"

"Thank you." The child sat her helmet on the table between them and settled as straight and still as any of the Tribe. She looked all around the Forge without moving her head. "You make armor here?"

"I do." The Armorer settled across from the child. "I make the armor for all those that follow me."

The child frowned. "Would you make armor for anyone that doesn't follow you?" She bit her tiny lower lip. "I'm sure I can talk the Princess General into paying for your services, if you would."

The Armorer ran a finger over the helmet's curves as the child watched closely. "And who would you have me armor?"

With a huge sigh, the child leaned forward and took the helmet out from under her hands. "My squad, no, Poe says we are a platoon. I really have to remember to use that word." She rubbed at the bridge of her little nose. "We're outgrowing our armor and the Princess General has promised we can stay in armor as long as we want, but if it doesn't fit right anymore we're going to injury someone in blaster tag when we don't mean to do so."

"Your...platoon? You are a solider?"

"Yes, but no. I'm an under-height Jedi Trooper now. I used to be an under-height Stormtrooper, but then there was a rebellion, well, another rebellion, and now Princess General is holding the galaxy together with a bag of tea leaves and slabs of duracrete. Again. I'm pretty sure she just needs more people to help. I thought if I could find us some more teachers then Master Luke wouldn't be so tired which means Princess General wouldn't have to sigh so much. And it would give..."

"Stop."

The child snapped her mouth shut and looked up at her.

The Armorer had more questions than she had dreamtime to ask them. "Your platoon is also...under-height?"

"Yes? We're all the same, except Kothor who is starting to show leg between his lower armor plates. He's a little taller. That's why I stopped on my way to scout our next mission when I saw your Forge even though it was a little blurry. The armor you wear bends the Force a little."

"And this Princess General makes you run missions? Be soldiers?"

"What?" The child shook her head. "No, no. Princess General doesn't make us do anything. She was upset I was going to have us help defend the base when she'd ordered us evacuated. Later, she even said it was alright that I haven't figured out reading yet." The child clutched her knees. "I'm working on it. I even got little sentences to make sense yesterday!"

"She is mad at you because you haven't learned?"

"No." The child relaxed all at once. "She doesn't even threaten to withhold rations for misbehaving. We really like the Resistance. The food is very good." She narrowed her eyes. "Wait, uh, I don't know how far through time I've fallen. It might not be yet. Have you heard of the Battle of Yavin?"

"That was last year." The Armorer blinked. "What do you mean you fell through time?"

The star expanse flexed around them.

"Ooooh, kriff." The child grabbed up her helmet. "Sorry, I have to go. Think about what you'd charge to make my platoon armor since we don't follow you." She plopped her helmet on her head. "Be caref..."

The Armorer bolted upright in her bed. The dream was gone in a blink and she was breathing shallowly for no reason to be seen. She settled her breathing as she wondered at a child in armor the vague shape of the Imperial Stormtroopers. She did not know of any helmet shaped quite like the child's had been though.

She wondered at what the dream was trying to tell her as she rose to start her day.

****

Years passed and Din left the group with the sharp toothed woman behind for the Bounty Hunter's Guild. The Armorer sometimes wondered what had prompted him to the change. He had held himself so stiffly when he'd told her he could not steal as he had been and the ship he'd taken would be the last payment given him by Ranzar Malk.

She had simply nodded and allowed him the choice. He was gaining the Tribe so much that even if he brought in half of what he had been bringing there would be room for several more Foundlings.

The Armorer went to sleep that night pleased with shape of their future. She opened her dream eyes expecting her Forge and star field, but not the child she'd only met once.

Yet, there at the edge of the area her Tribe's soft lights covered was the small girl in her black star-speckled armor. The child waved.

The Armorer beckoned her closer. "You are back."

The child nodded as she sat once again at the low table. "I'm happy I made it after I'd met you before. The aiming is tricker than I expected it to be."

She sat down across from the child. "It has been several years since you and I met."

"Oh. Then you have had time to think about what you'd charge for armor." The child looked at her expectantly.

"You wish me to make armor for children?"

The girl tilted her head to one side. "We've not been children since we left the Enlistment Pool. We're just under-height. I mean, Poe and Princess General treat us like children sometimes, but they at least admit that we are very good at what we do."

"And what is that?"

"Being Troopers. Not Stormtroopers, of course. Not anymore. We had designations, but Poe helped us with names and now we decide when we risk our lives." The child frowned at her. "You don't want to help us, do you?"

The Armorer moved to her tool bench and pulled out her most beloved hammer and tongs. She sat across from the child and put the tools on the table between them next to the girl's helmet. "I did not say I would not help. There is little beskar to spare and I will not see you in plastiod armor."

"It's perfectly good armor."

The Armorer snatched up her hammer and brought it down on the helmet as it sat placidity on the table.

Instead of shattering as plastiod armor should under her hammer the helmet barely cracked along one eye ridge. 

The child traced the crack with a fingertip. "What would you say if I could find enough of this beskar stuff for all of us? Or would durasteel work?"

The Armorer sat aside her hammer and picked up the helmet. It felt like plastoid under her gloved fingers. "This should have shattered."

"I'm stronger than that." The child pulled the helmet from her hands. "Show me what beskar is so I know what I'm looking for."

The Armorer woke abruptly as someone yelled that Din had brought them a new Foundling.

****

The Armorer went to sleep every night in the following years looking for the armored child in her dreams. Each night that passed without the child reappearing made her wonder if she'd harmed the child when she had cracked the girl's helmet.

In the ninth year after the Battle of Yavin, the Armorer allowed herself to set aside her worry of a dream child to focus on the Tribe that lived tucked around her Forge and the one she sent out into danger to support them.

****


	2. Knife to a Sin

****

Din was very stiff by the time he and the child reached Nevarro. He could feel every bruise from the mudhorn fight and falling from the Jawa's transport. The ones from falling off the blurrg didn't even register anymore. He still hadn't decided what he was going to do. The child, while fifty years old, if that was to even be believed, was still just a child.

He kept his steps steady as he walked into the town. If he handed the child over he would bring more beskar back to the Tribe. If he handed the child over, he was giving the child to the Imps. If he took the payment and attempted to fight his way out with the child, given the current state of his armor, he was liable to fail and lose both the child and the beskar. 

He couldn't stop at the covert to ask for help first even if he'd been willing to seek aid. He was drawing too many eyes with the pram floating along behind him. He kept his steps even as he passed through the bazaar.

Would they kill the child right off? The doctor had seemed very adamant he wanted the child alive. If he could get the beskar back to the Tribe and then get the child would there be enough time? Would the Tribe accept a child so old?

He mentally sighed as his back told him how mad it was about everything as he waited for the Client's door to open. He barely held it together to let the child be taken away. The beskar felt far too heavy as he headed towards the covert.

The fight with Paz did not help his soreness, but perhaps some of the stiffness became just pure pain. At least the Armorer did not agree with Paz aloud. Din held himself still as he waited for the Armorer to complete the new armor. 

He didn't deserve a signet. He'd given away a child who needed help to an enemy force. He might very well be a coward, if not in the way Paz had meant. He couldn't ask for the Tribe's help in recovering the child. He would need to run if he did succeed in getting the child. The tracking fobs would lead any hunter straight to the Tribe if the Armorer were to require him to relinquish the child to another's care. He couldn't risk the Tribe's forces for this stupid situation he found himself stuck in.

He would have refused the Whistling Birds, but he was liable to need them within the Imp's safehouse if he couldn't pick off the Stormtroopers in small groups. He didn't feel worthy of the honor of Whistling Birds. He didn't even feel worthy of his helmet at the moment.

He was helping the Foundlings. The child was helping the Foundlings. Right? In a way? He tried to hold himself in the present as his usual flashbacks hit when the Forge started working in earnest. There was a child in need. He wished he had time to heal completely, but there was no time for it.

He'd already taken too long.

****

Paz was beyond worried when Din stiffly marched out of the covert in his new armor. Something about the whole thing wasn't sitting right. He regretted trying to take Din's helmet, but the younger man hadn't moved fast enough during their fight and the way he'd held himself had been off a tiny amount.

He followed Din down the tunnels as far as he could and was even more dismayed when Din didn't even turn his head to look at Paz. Had he made Din that upset? Or was something else going on?

He grabbed up one of the gossips that liked to stay close to a vent where they could hear surface conversations. "Do you know what his bounty was?"

"No. I heard there were many fobs given out. I heard someone say the only part of the ID chain given was the age. Fifty years old. And that he's angered a number of the Guild for having brought the bounty in."

Paz nodded. "He can be hard on the emotions, that boy." He ignored the snort that got him in reply. He moved back down the tunnel and stood in the entryway of the Forge.

"Enter."

He moved and sat at her low table. She had Din's old armor in front of her, pulling apart the small components that could be salvaged before the rest was returned to the Forge. 

"I was rash today."

"Hmm." She tilted her helmet to glance up at him for a moment. "You know this, yet you did not say so to him."

"No." He held the corner of the chest plate so she could pry a part off more easily. "I find he exasperates my rashness."

She held still for a bare moment before rapping his knuckles with her tool. "Control yourself for that is all the control you have."

"I will do better."

She sat aside another component. "He was more disturbed with the Forge's work than is his norm."

Paz blinked. So she had seen the oddness of Din's actions too. "Perhaps from the injuries he took with the armor's lost integrity?"

"I think not. He was stiff. Slow enough not to cut you as he could if he were at his normal speed during your display of rashness." She paused as she sat down her tool to pick up another. "He almost refused the Whistling Birds."

"He has wanted his own since he was a Foundling himself."

"Yes."

Paz frowned. "I worry his last bounty is the cause. There were far too many fobs in play."

She tilted her helmet as though she was studying the the pile of salvage between them. "A lookout's report said he was followed into town by a pram."

He stared at her as she raised her head to look at him. "His bounty was fifty years old."

They looked at each other for a few moments.

Paz bit his lower lip for a second. "Do you think it was a child? A fifty year old child?"

"I do not know." She stood and exchanged the armor between them for a different piece of Din's old armor. "If it is a child that hunted it will not survive by staying with our current Foundlings. He would know this." She moved to start pulling components off this piece as well. "You will prepare to help if it is required this day. And if it is so, you will return after to escort the current Foundlings to safety." She put her tool down and looked at him. "This is the Way."

He nodded. "This is the Way."

****

Din found his feet took him to the cantina before he could pull himself from his thoughts enough to stop before entering the building. He didn't want to retreat under the many eyes that turned his way upon entering, so he went to acquire a new bounty. 

He asked Karga about what the Imps' plans were not because he thought he'd get an answer, but to let the man have warning that Din was seriously considering breaking Guild code. 

Fewer eyes followed him as he exited the cantina.

He walked clear to his ship as he argued with himself about the wisdom and foolishness of taking on the Imps. He had no actual idea of the Imp numbers. He had no guarantee of success and it would hurt the Tribe if he went for the child.

Din moved through the routine of readying the ship to fly by route. He'd be unable to provide for the Tribe while he was hunted. It would only hurt him and the child if he didn't, but...the child would be hurt. He was already hurt. Din had hurt him as surely as if he'd struck the child himself.

That thought froze him as he started to move a lever on his ship's dash. He'd hurt the child. Sure the Imps were the ones that had him, but Din was the reason the child was there. In harm's way. He had sinned.

He shut down his ship and gathered up his weapons. He had a child to rescue.

****

Paz watched Din walk back into town from one of the lookout points. He moved with purpose back down to the tunnels where he started gathering those most frustrated with being pent up in the covert. He knew Din was no fool. The boy would have the child easily. It was the travel back to his ship that would be the weak point.

They prepped as there was a distance sounding thump of a detonation from the direction of the Imps' stronghold. Some of the twitcher of his fellows were bouncing on their toes when the word came that Din was headed back out of town with a bundle in one arm. The hunters were reported to be gathering.

Paz held their forces as they watched to see if Din would make it without their backup. It looked like they might not be needed until the ferry droid was hit and Din became pinned down.

He nodded to the others and so they moved. The fight was loud and fast as all battles were. It wasn't difficult and he had very little worries that they would end the night with anything beyond minor injuries. 

He worried more for Din's condition. Running with a hunted Foundling was going to give no time for Din to recover properly from the injuries that Paz knew he had to have taken given the state of the armor that had seen the mudhorn.

Din nodding as Paz escorted them as far as he could helped Paz feel better about not getting a chance to tell the boy he regretted the attempt to take Din's helmet. Paz peeled off from their flight vector when his armor started telling him he couldn't go further if he wanted his jetpack to continue to fire.

He checked that the hunters were melting from the remains of the battle before returning to the Tribe.

The Armorer was at the entrance of the Forge with all their current Foundlings. "He has gone?"

"He and the child made it into space." Paz patted the nearest Foundling on the shoulder. "Who goes with the Foundlings and I?"

The Armorer gestured to the munitions table. "Gather what you need to rearm. No one goes with you, save for the Foundlings."

Paz froze with his hand reaching for another repeater belt. "What?"

She tucked more small explosives into a bag she handed to one of the eldest of the Foundlings. "You will take the Foundlings, steal the Imperial ship that was hid when the Imps first came, and you will run for the New Republic."

He stared at the back of his hand still frozen in the act of reaching for munitions. "What?"

She pushed his hand out of the way and started piling repeater belts into another bag. "The enemy will be forced to stay here and call for reinforcements. We will allow them to think they have broken us while the Foundlings are safe with you and forces that hate the Imperials nearly as much as we."

He blinked and blinked as he tried to figure out what she meant to do with everyone else. "The reinforcements will surely search the tunnels."

"Of course." She bundled the latest bag of munitions about him as he dumbly stared at her. "Searching and finding are two different things."

He shook his head hard to try to make the pieces he wasn't seeing fall into place somehow. "I do not understand."

"The New Republic has not wiped out anything. Not even Imperials." She tightened something on his jetpack. "They are soft about younglings as well."

"That I understand. It is keeping everyone else here that doesn't make sense to me."

She gestured for them to gather. "I did not say everyone else will stay here."

He shook his head and started final checks on the Foundlings. "I need not understand. I will send a signal when we have found a safe harbor."

"You will not." She raised a hand to stop his protest. "Din could be snared by a false signal if they were to mimic our own. You will await us. I have set a locator beacon on you that only I know the frequency for."

"Ah." Paz had no idea what she really meant to do with the rest of the Tribe, but he'd been the anchor for regroups before. This he understood. "I will insure the Foundlings survive as they are the future."

"This is the Way."

He gave a sharp nod as he started to herd the Foundlings from the Forge. "This is the Way."

****

Paz was very proud of Din by the time he and the Foundlings made it to space. There had been only a sniveling doctor and two measly Stormtroopers near the ship when they arrived to steal it. Their higher officer had been yelling over the comms as Paz cut down the Stormtroopers with quick efficiency. The doctor he knocked out and left against the building wall nearest the ship.

No one else came in the time it took to pile everyone and their supplies into the ship. He nodded to the escorts they were leaving behind and closed up the ship's ramp. 

The controls were straightforward. Paz realized he had missed piloting more than he had thought as he lifted the ship off from the building that had hid it.

As soon as the ship entered hyperspace he stood from the controls. "Watch the alarms, please."

The eldest Foundling nodded and settled carefully into the command chair.

Paz searched through the ship and killed every tracker he came across. It didn't fix the ones in the hull that he couldn't reach while they were in space, but it would gain them some time.

He saw the youngest Foundlings bedded down in the most defensible room near the cockpit. He found the eldest Foundling nearly asleep when he was finally done and able to reenter the cockpit.

"I'm awake."

He rubbed the boy's shoulder. "I know. You did well. Join the others and rest." Paz waited until he was alone to double check the alarms were set to be audible and then he dozed.

****

Din sighed as the child cooed at the makeshift toy he'd given over. He hoped the child wouldn't try to eat it. He flexed his fingers and tried to work out why he wasn't nearly as sore as he'd been. The effects of battle not having worn off yet? He thought it over as he considered their next move. He wanted to worry about the Tribe having to relocate, but that was a useless waste of energy.

He flipped through the navigation listings and tried to keep one eye on the child as he did. He had no idea how he was going to provide for the child while also being the sole protector for the child, but it would come. He would have to figure it out for both their sakes.

****


	3. Friends by Fire

****

Carasynthia Dune watched as what had to be the oddest pair of beings she'd seen in a while walked across the cantina to take a table near the far wall. One was definitely some sort of Mandalorian and the tiny being...Actually, she had no idea what to make of the tiny thing.

The Mandalorian looked her way and started asking the hostess questions. Well, kriff.

She slipped out when the hostess moved just enough to break the Mandalorian's line of sight. Cara moved with quick light steps around the side of the building until she could grab a handhold and pull herself up.

She settled herself into her chosen spot to see if he was going to come for her. A bounty was likely given what she'd left in her wake, but he'd not had a fob out when he'd come through the door.

He'd had on what looked like beskar armor. Any possible fight would have been so much easier if he had some armor plates that were just durasteel. He wasn't going to be easy to finish off unless she could get a good chokehold or a vibroblade through a gap in the plates of his armor.

He moved silently as he followed her tracks. Cara didn't see the tiny being with him so she didn't hesitate as he came into her range.

The fight was almost fun. She hadn't been expecting that. He wasn't even trying for his blaster until they were rolling and then they had a stand off. She turned her head at the same time as he did when the sound of slurping interrupted them.

She blinked at the tiny green being standing there slurping their broth. She waited for a sarcastic remark from the small form, but instead the Mandalorian offered her soup. Okay, her day had officially gotten weird.

She watched as he stood up in a stiff looking way that was trying not to look stiff. Uh. They hadn't even hit each other that hard, had they? She was going to have a couple of bruises, but nothing so bad as all that. She knew she hadn't gotten him in the sensitive parts if he were human. Maybe he was older or had prior injuries? Hmm. That was something to consider. She followed them as he herded the tiny being back into the cantina.

It didn't take long for her to start regaling him with the public version of her Trooper days. He didn't interrupt her or try to tell her she didn't know what she'd been doing. It was...nice. He was comfortable to sit with as the little one kept downing more bone broth beside them.

Once she'd confirmed he didn't have a fob on her she made herself scarce before the comfortable feeling pulled her in too far. Watching the pair leave, she wondered again at his actual physical condition as he was moving real deliberately. It was that purposeful way that said everything in his body was screaming pain at him.

Cara put them out of her mind as best she could by ordering another round of spotchka.

****

Din stopped to consider the landing gear that had been munched on while getting that Mythrol bounty as the child waddled on up the ramp of the ship. Near the top of the ramp the child turned back toward him and cooed.

"Go on. I'm going to check the ship before we leave." He pulled open a compartment that held handtools as the child burped and went on in the ship.

Din shook his head and started working on the little things he could fix himself. They were going to have to do something about the carbon buildup soon. He'd been letting it go as it usually wasn't the biggest concern, but now he had no idea when he might have to push the ship to the limit.

He ignored the approaching locals. They were going to fuss at him about some job he was sure. He'd not told the Shock Trooper he was going to leave, but he didn't feel up to another round against her today. In a few days, sure. Once his back wasn't so mad about the roll move he'd pulled getting him and the child into the ferry droid's hovercart on Nevarro. 

Then the locals said something that changed his mind about accepting their job. Middle of nowhere. It'd take time for hunters to reach the middle of nowhere. He could heal. The child could enjoy not being cooped up in his ship. He could take a few raiders if they had lodging in this middle of nowhere.

As they loaded his supplies onto their ferry droid's hovercart he wondered to himself about asking Dune for help. He was banged up. She'd been able to hold a conversation without making him talk too much and she hadn't asked the normal stupid questions about Mandalorians. She could probably do with the middle of nowhere.

****

Paz woke as the ship dinged it was going to drop them out of hyperspace in a few minutes. He stretched and gave the Foundlings a quick check. Finding them still in their sleep plies, Paz turned back to the cockpit and looked at their options. Would it be better to ditch their current ship or run right for a New Republic stronghold?

Ditching could get them a non-Imp ship that would be less hostile in the eyes of the New Republic forces. How likely were they to be fired on before being hailed? He wasn't sure these days. Imp ships were tin cans. One trigger-happy gunship could end them.

Paz eyed the star charts. Neutral ships were likely on Tatooine. And they had Jawas that would make short work of this ship and its remaining trackers. Alright, Tatooine first and then...He searched through the Imp's data trying to decide on a New Republic planet. He needed one that wasn't where the high ups were currently. It had to have plenty in the way of food. 

He discarded all the planets that had seen huge battles in the last few years. He considered and then discarded the Core planets as too...much. He started through the Mid-Rim and stopped on Nakadia. Farm planet that had been the headquarters for the New Republic for a year a few years ago. Hmmm. Food, check. And the higher ups would have left behind forces when they moved. They usually did. It wasn't too near any planets he knew for sure held Imp sympathies.

Mostly the food decided him. He had hungry mouths to feed after all.

****

Cara watched the kid catch another frog as she ate her noon meal. A fifty year old child was a new one on her. She turned her head just enough to watch Mando showing the villagers where he wanted one side of the defense line.

They were probably screwed going up against an AT-ST. She shoveled more food into her mouth. Thing is, she'd not expected Mando to cave and say the two of them could teach this ragged mess of a group of people to fight. She watched him explain himself again as one of the villagers didn't grasp what he meant when he'd start in on tactical terms. He was...something. 

Cara blinked at herself. Seriously? Something? She sighed and gathered up her dishes to give Omera. Was she really that lonely? The widow was making enough starry eyes at Mando as it was. They didn't need her to do it too.

She smiled down at the kid as it cooed at her as she went past him and his captured frog. "If they don't see you eat it no one can complain, kid."

She defiently didn't listen to the gulping sounds behind her as she walked on.

****

As the AT-ST chased them, Din questioned just how crazy he might actually be. He kept an eye on Dune to make sure she was still moving with him as they dodged the incoming fire. Dune knew what she was talking about, so why had he said they could do this? Other than that he thought they might pull it out.

He ducked as another tree blew apart near them. Maybe they were going to pull this out. Maybe.

The AT-ST stopping short was a big problem. He gave a moments thought to trying to rig something to pull a leg forward. Him alone wasn't enough. The ferry droid didn't have the pull. He asked Dune if she had any thoughts as he tried to caculate how long it would take to dig some ground out from under one of the feet.

He handed over his Amban when she asked for it and he covered Dune's advance. If she could get a shot into one of the joints at close enough range it might stutter into the pond. Din kept the raiders off Dune as she lined up on the AT-ST. Huh. Shot right to the edge of the eye port.

As the mech started to fall into the pond, Din was up and moving. The sideways fall had jolted the other port's cover loose which made dropping his explosive charge into the mech all the easier.

He grinned at Dune even though he knew she couldn't see his expression. "Good job."

****

Cara grinned at Mando. She could tell he was smiling even through the armor as he told she'd done a good job. "You too." She raised her chin at the retreating raiders. "Clean up?"

"Sure." He held out his hand towards her.

She held out his rifle, thinking that was what he was after, but he kept his hand out. She waded towards him a step and caught his wrist with her hand. He pulled her up onto the pond's walkway.

"Let's go."

She kept grinning as she followed him with his rifle at the ready. This had been fun. Wet, but fun.

****

Din sighed as another day passed without the sign of any new raiders. No hunters either. He was rested. Healed up enough that only his normal pains lingered. He might even be able to leave the kid here. He watched as Dune sipped on her spotchka as the farmers went about their day.

She nodded towards the child. "He's figured out how to eat the frogs without the other kids seeing."

"I noticed." Din hadn't tried to stop the frogging eating habit after that first time. With Omera's help they'd tried several foods, but so far bone broth and frogs seemed to be the way to go. He'd been really happy the day that Dune had gotten the kid to take a bite of ration bar without a problem.

"I've never seen anyone like him."

He leaned against the doorframe near Dune. "No one has that I have found so far." 

They fell into an easy silence until Omera came out of the house to offer him food and talk over the child's enjoyment of the village. Din watched Omera walk away, so maybe that was why Dune's sudden question caught him off guard.

He turned his head towards Dune as she asked what would happen if he took off his helmet. Her speculations were crazy. Kill him? Seriously? Was she making fun of...He narrowed his eyes at her and explained that he'd just never be able to put the armor back on again.

She waved her cup around as she fussed at him about the possibility of settling down with Omera and doing nothing with his life other than sip spotchka.

He stared at her until she took another drink from her cup. He didn't want to do nothing with his life. He certainly didn't want to take off his helmet for _nothing_. Raise the kid? Maybe, if...well, no. His hunter's life was a crap life for a child. A farmer's life wasn't Din's life at all. Nor a life he wanted to build for himself and certainly not at the cost of his _beskar'gam_.

He looked out over the village as he brought up the idea to Dune of moving on. About leaving the child in the village. Giving the child a better chance at a life. Even if it was a simple framer's life. 

Din flinched when Dune said it'd break his little heart for Din to leave. It was hard to keep his voice steady as he told her that everyone gets over that sort of heartbreak. He wasn't surprised when she just took another sip from her cup and didn't argue with him.

****

Cara usually patrolled in the evenings as she didn't have to wake at the crack of dawn anymore so she damn well wasn't going to unless they came under fire. This morning she'd woken up without the least sign she'd spent most of yesterday drinking spotchka so that she wouldn't shake that stupid-son-of-a-bantha-Mando to his stupid-male-under-all-that-armor senses. Also, it was the kriffing crack of dawn.

She didn't pay attention to Mando as she passed him for the woods. She didn't hear him laughing at her, but she wouldn't begrudge him if he was. Kriffing dawn. She walked the perimeter of the village twice and was considering going back in to get a cup of spotchka when she heard beeping.

What the hell was beeping in the middle of the damn woods? Cara followed the sound and came on a figure aiming a pulse rifle at the village. At Mando. Well, kriff.

She stayed with the body after she shot it because she knew that Mando would waste no time coming to her position.

He arrived in next to no time with his blaster at the ready. She asked if he knew who the hunter was for to try to give him an opening to tell her it was him. That would make sense with the way he was talking about leaving the kid behind. Mando telling her the fob was for the kid? Yeah, she'd not seen that one coming. Cara frowned as she followed Mando back into the village.

****


	4. Peli knows Best

****

Paz stared down at the tiny woman that was scolding him about the state of his stolen ship.

"You're going to need a lot of work done. How you goin' pay for that?"

He cocked his head. "I'm not." He gestured to the ship. "I'll give you the ship if you'll agree to scrap it."

She jutted her chin out and stared up at him. "It files. Why would you want to scrap it?"

"The Imps I stole it from are probably tracking it."

She frowned. "Ah." She looked over at the little maintenance droids that were watching them. "You don't seem to mind my knowing you stole it."

"You don't look stupid so I figured you already knew."

She made a face as she nodded. "Hmmm." She pointed with her scanner at the ship. "You want me to just strip out the remaining trackers? It'd be faster than you waiting for another good ship to steal that I'd let you fly out in."

Paz tilted his head. "You think you could stop me?"

She smiled and waggled her scanner at him. "I'm a mechanic. You want to test me?"

He blinked at that. He smiled and for once wished he had a simple way to convey his amusement to an outsider. "I like you."

Her eyebrows went up. "Do you? That's nice." She waved the scanner again. "Just let ol'Peli fix you right up."

Paz gently gripped her shoulder to keep her from passing him to get to the ship. "I have nothing to pay you with."

She looked him up and down. "There's a cantina you could try to get a job from. Mandalorians do that, don't they?"

"There's...cargo aboard I am sworn to protect. I can't leave to do a side job."

She hummed as she pulled her arm from his hold. "I don't work for free."

"I would not expect it of you."

She frowned and narrowed her eyes at him. She looked to the ship and then back to him. "Would you be willing to let me strip parts out of the ship that you don't have to have? There's few that, if they are in decent shape, could cover costs. Barely, mind, but it could. Depends on the number of trackers."

Paz nodded. "As long as it can still fly afterwards, I would accept that."

Peli nodded slowly. "Alright, deal." She pointed at him with her free hand. "Can't take the helmet off in front of people, that right?"

"Yes."

She gestured towards the far hanger wall. "My office has solid walls, window covers that work, and a fresher. You can stay there while I pull the ship apart. It'll take a few days at least."

Paz thought about the Foundlings, this tiny woman, and their entire situation. He wondered if Din was alright. If those remaining at the covert were alive. He cocked his head. "I'd need to move the cargo into your office as well."

"As long as you can fit it through the door, I'm fine with that." She crossed her arms and looked from him to the ship and then back again. "Oh. You need me not to see that either. Right, sure. Time is money, but whatever. Come bang on the door when I can come back into my own damn hangar."

He watched as she herded the droids out through the hangar door. He turned to get the Foundlings moved. He really did like her.

****

The Foundlings were about to drive Paz out of his mind by the day that Peli banged on the office door and said she needed him to come see her work. A "few days" had turned into a week and a half. They were all ready for more space. He'd thought himself pent up in the covert, but this...yeah, they needed space. Soon. He slipped out of the office carefully and made sure the door closed behind him.

She was wiping her hand on a rag when he joined her at the base of the ramp of...wow, it barely looked like it had ever been an Imp ship. He stared up at it as Peli told him how hard it had been to crack one of the bulkheads so she'd just pulled the whole thing and replaced it.

He kept right on staring at it in wonder.

"Sorry about the paint job. I ran out of blue."

Paz pulled her into a sideways hug under his arm. "I will come back one day and properly pay you for this."

She patted his back. "You don't owe me. Don't try to longjump the galaxy with it. It'll hold together, but I ain't a proper shipyard, Mandalorian."

He nodded and gently squeezed her once more before letting her squirm away from the hug. "I must owe you something."

Peli led him up the ramp and started pointing out all the things she'd stripped out of the ship. "Nah. You don't. I was in a battle once as a kid. I was scared of heights so bad your folk couldn't jetpack me out. They formed up a squad around me and carried me out of it by ground. Found me my parents and wouldn't even take payment for saving me." She waved him ahead of her. "Now let me show you where I reinforced the main cabin so you can hold it in a fight if you've gotta."

Paz let go of a breath he didn't even know he had been holding.

****

Peli waved as the Mandalorian lifted his revamped ship off from her hangar. She'd triple checked there were no trackers left, rewired the entire central control harness so that nothing could remotely kill it if it got near Imperial forces. She'd done her best to make the thing a flying fortress so he'd be able to get those children he was guarding wherever they were going.

She was going to be lean for a while for it. The parts she had been able to keep were all stamped with internal Imperial markings that made them a pain to sell for what they'd be worth unmarked. She might have to power down the droids a bit here and there. It'd work out though.

She headed to her office to see how much of a mess his herd had made. She hadn't told him she had heard the children giggling through the window covers. It hadn't been harming anyone and if she had said anything about it he'd have worried far harder about her intentions.

The promise he asked her to give him that she'd not mention him to anyone had been easy enough. No one around here would think to try to tell Mandalorians apart if they weren't seen in groups. That she'd silently extended it to never mentioning that he'd had children with him he didn't need to worry about either. She wouldn't see them come to harm if she could help it.

****

Paz marveled at the way the ship flew now. It was responsive and felt sleek rather than the space bantha it had been. He might have held his breath as he sent them to hyperspace, but the jump hadn't be too bad and the ship didn't even shake hard during the transitions.

"Come look at the hidden weapons panels!"

Paz yelled that he was coming and set the ship's alarms to scream if it needed his input. He really was going to have to make sure Peli was repaid for this as soon as he was able.

****

Din hated having to hard reboot his ship. He hating doing it even more in space. It always worried him that the main power wouldn't trip over to the console without blowing a circuit he wouldn't be able to fix. That firefight had done a number on them. He was going to need to set down and have a professional look at the damage. The starboard engine sounded like it was hiccuping and the port engine was sounding even worse off. 

He'd felt like the ship had pulled a little too hard into his maneuver. Like it had known what he'd been planning before he'd touched the controls. He flipped switches and lost his train of thought as more of the ship's status alarms started blinking.

He saw how much fuel they were leaking and mentally winced. They were going to need proper repairs for this. He should probably be happy that he hadn't had any lingering injuries to exasperate with his hard maneuvers.

Din turned and looked the child over, just in case he'd pulled them around too sharply for the tiny being. He got giggled and cooed at. Well, at least someone was happy today.

They were near Tatooine. He didn't know if that was good or bad. He did not want to deal with Jawas. Just...no. He'd just about take droids over Jawas at the moment. Mos Eisley it was then.

This was going to cost him.

****

Peli thought this Mandalorian was sure shinier than the last one. And way more uptight. She fussed at him about the state of his ship and about how he was going to pay as she wondered if he knew the blue Mandalorian from last month. Not that they'd all know each other, of course, but she still wondered.

She didn't say anything about the first one to this one, but she wondered. The blue one hadn't minded the droids and this one...well, she wasn't going to ask why, but he certainly didn't like the droids.

She sent him off mostly to keep him out of her hair so she could work. It was going to take extra time with just her working on it, but at least she wasn't pulling the whole damn thing apart. Well, maybe that one engine. She hadn't liked how that had been smoking on the way in.

It was a wonder the ship had managed to land without blowing up.

She worked until the suns were starting to beat down unbearably. She moved to the shade to play cards with the droids until the heat let up a bit.

The child wandering out of the ship was a surprise. Didn't that man know he couldn't just _leave_ a baby by itself? She hugged the little one to her chest. Awww, look at those big ears. Little guy was going to need a modified helmet when he got big enough to want one.

Peli chattered to the baby as she headed to her office to see if the other Mandalorian's herd had accidentally left a toy behind she could gift to this Mandalorian's baby. She wondered if this was his first child rescue. Must be if he didn't know not to leave the baby alone. She was going to give that man an earful when he came back.

****


	5. Water and Sand

****

Cara waited for the next fool to come along and challenge her to tetherbrawl as she sipped her spotchka and wished that the Mandalorian had asked her to go with him. She got why he hadn't, of course. He didn't need any hunters for her added to the hunters he was already dodging for the kid, but kriff if she didn't miss him...them. Miss them.

She was so bored. No one in this entire bar could throw a decent punch. It was a little insulting really. You'd think in a backwater with nothing to do but farm, fight, or fuck would have people that would be better at the last two than they were turning out to be.

She glanced up at the ceiling. She hoped the kid and Mando were okay. She should have made him at least give her a commlink. Wonder how he would have handled her trying to stow away on his ship. Heh. That probably wouldn't have gone over well.

Cara sighed and took another drink.

****

Paz frowned as a Foundling tapped his elbow. "Yes?" He nudged the ship over to get it lined up for the next hyperspace lane.

"We are running out of water."

He hit a switch and sure enough their tank was low. He calculated the next jump and the one after and the the amount of time it might take him to find potable water on Nakadia. "Hmmm. Alright." He checked the system they were on the edge of. Sorgan. Backwater, no Imps, real shithole. With lakes. Perfect.

If he could find a small village in the middle of nowhere he could let the Foundlings run around in the sun for a day while the water pumped in.

****

Omera hadn't expected the Mandalorian to come back, so the ship slowly coming in to land didn't register at possibly his until the ramp lowered and an armored man stepped out.

Winta darted forward before Omera had half a moment to even think of trying to catch her.

"Why is your armor not shiny?"

"Winta!"

The Mandalorian tilted his head to look down at Winta. "Met a Mandalorian, have you?"

Omera tucked Winta against her side. "She has heard stories."

"Mother!"

Omera squeezed Winta's arm under her hand to warn her to be quiet. "I apologize for my daughter's rudeness."

The Mandalorian shook his head. "No need. Children ask questions so they will have knowledge." He nodded toward the village. "You have a fine village."

She turned her head to look at the village that their Mandalorian and Cara had done so much to help them keep. "Yes." She looked back at him as Winta fidgeted in her hold. "I am Omera. I speak on behalf of my people. What brings you to our village?"

The Mandalorian gestured to his ship. "I'm in need of water." He spread his hands. "I have little to trade for it, I fear."

Omera wrapped her hand around Winta's chin to keep her from blurting anything out. "Water is plentiful here. We owe a debt to another Mandalorian. He did not give us his name. I do not know if you would accept our debt to him as help for you."

"Did his armor have colors or symbols you remember?"

Omera mentally cursed as Winta became a sudden weight so heavy that she dropped right out of Omera's hold. "Winta."

"He was very shiny with no symbols." Winta batted at Omera's hands. "Mother, Mando told us about the big blue Mando that was his best friend and how he had really heavy armor. Didn't he tell you?"

Omera stopped trying to restrain her wayward child. "When was this?"

"When we were pulling apart the AT-ST and Cara had to hold the cover open while Mando crawled inside. He said his blue friend wouldn't have fit through the door and Cara said it was just as well Mando's friend wasn't there for the fight, because he'd would't have let her borrow Mando's rilfe to have taken out the AT-ST."

"Ah." Omera pulled Winta around and pointed her at the village. "Go find your uncle and tell him we need the water tap and the fill line for ships pulled out of storage."

"Awww, Mother."

"Go." Omera waited for Winta to get out of earshot before turning back to the Mandalorian.

"An AT-ST?"

"We had raiders bothering the village until he arrived and hired another to help with the fee we had offered to him. Between the two of them and the villagers we were able to win against the raiders."

The Mandalorian sat on the edge of the ramp and rubbed at his helmet. "You end up paying him anything?"

"I forced him to accept some of the harvest to feed him and his child when they left."

"Child?"

Omera frowned. "I still don't know that you are his friend."

He shrugged his armored shoulders. "I don't have a way to prove anything to you." He turned his head towards his ship. "I can trust that another Mandalorian has allowed you to help their child. Foundlings!"

Omera stared as several children appeared around the edge of the hatch.

The big Mandalorian hugged one of the children to his side. "The Mandalorian that helped you sounds like one I know and I will inform him your debt is paid when next I see him."

Omera smiled softly. "Tell him also that my offer for him to stay here still stands." She stooped down a little to bring her eye level with one of the children in a helmet. "Is anyone hungry?"

****

The Armorer finished the last of the decoy armor and cracked the helmet with her hammer before it was even done cooling. She spread the armor through their tunnels and made sure that it would trip Stormtroopers sent to search.

There were heavy footfalls from around the corner, but they were not right for the boots of Stormtroopers.

She turned the corner with a helmet in her hand ready to throw if need be, but all she found was Greef Karga, if Din's description of the man was correct. "Yes?"

He froze at the sight of her. "Uhhh. Sorry, didn't mean to...uh, intrude. I wanted..." He tugged a slab of beskar from his coat. "Mando didn't kill me when he could have. Even though I'd brought the Guild down on his head." He held out the beskar. "I...owe him a lifedebt."

She took the beskar from him and tucked it into her belt. "Then you will always owe him."

The man bit his lip. "Perhaps. I...There's Imperials coming. Lots of them. They outrank the Client that started all this mess."

"This is not unexpected."

"No, I guess it isn't." He gestured to the helmet she still held in her other hand. "You'll lose people. The Imps will come in great numbers. My Guild members are fleeing the planet left and right."

"Yes, I am aware."

"Well..." Karga frowned. "You've been down here all this time and you are just going to let the Imps get you?"

The Armorer smiled and tossed Karga the helmet she'd been holding. "They will get empty helmets. Which is more important to me? The beskar or the people that wear it?"

He fumbled the catch, but he did keep the helmet from hitting the ground. "I...don't know." He followed her as she moved down the tunnel to start laying out the armor. "You're...What are you doing?"

"What I must to save my people." She put a vambrace down and kicked it around in the muck of the tunnel before making sure a tiny amount was clean enough to gleem in a searcher's light. "Will your Guild members all flee?"

"No. There's a few that will stay, but I won't have the numbers to stand against the Imperials. They'll take the town from me." Karga handed her the helmet when she held her hand out for it. "You don't seem concerned."

"I am not." She had only herself to worry about and the Forge, if lost, would simply be rebuilt. She rolled the helmet so it looked as though it had been thrown away. "The bounty was a child. The Imperials did not think through giving a child bounty to a Mandalorian. It will prove to be their doom."

****

Paz listened avidly as the story of the village's hero Mandalorian and ally Rebel Trooper was retold as they ate. The water pumping into the ship would be done in another hour and he didn't want to overnight here. The story rounded to the point of embellishing the hunter that had come to the village and how it had prompted the Mandalorian to leave.

As Omera smiled at him again, Paz wondered if she would have been able to hold Din here if the child he cared for wasn't in such danger. She was nice enough, but Paz didn't think Din would have stayed. It was too quiet here. 

He gathered up the Foundlings into the ship as the dusk settled over the village. The ship was full of water and about to overflow with gifts from the villagers.

"You could stay."

Paz turned towards Omera standing there with the fill line in her hands. "He did not."

She winced slightly and Paz mentally cursed his bluntness. "The difference is that he could not. He is a guardian and he had a child to protect." She sighed. "As you have many to protect. Do Mandalorians ever marry with those that do not wear your armor?"

Paz blinked. "Sometimes." He shrugged a shoulder. "I don't think he would, though. He clings to tradition."

She nodded. "Hmm. Or perhaps he already has his eyes set on someone."

He shook his head. "I actually don't think he feels in that way for anyone."

"Perhaps." She patted the back of his gloved hand. "Or it just takes him more time."

Paz snorted and turned to go into the ship. "I will tell him that you would still welcome him."

She sighed behind him. "Thanks. Be safe, Mandalorian."

****

Peli handed the baby back over to the Mandalorian as the young hunter's body smoked on the ground nearby. "You alright, Mandalorian?"

He looked around and flinched slightly when the droids popped up to check each other. "Alright. You?" He turned the child from side to side. "What about you, little wamp rat?"

"I'm fine. You call him that too much and he'll start thinking it is his name."

"I don't have a name to call him." The helmet tilted as he looked down at her. "I'm sorry you were threatened."

Peli smiled and patted the man's side. "Wasn't your fault he saw the kid. You'll be able to lift off in about an hour. I just have a couple of panels to close back up. Any more you know of that will come looking?"

"There are a lot of fobs on us."

She knew he meant the baby, but she didn't say anything. She nodded towards her office. "My office closes up. You and him can sit in there till I'm done. And, yes, I remember the whole no droids bit."

He gave a sharp nod and turned towards her office. He stopped after a few steps. "The body..."

She waved him off. "The droids will get it. Just go sit. Maybe eat something. I'll knock on the door when I'm done and you can fly."

****


	6. Rescue by Kidnapping

*****

Paz didn't know what the hell they'd tripped over, but suddenly he wasn't certain he was going to live to see the Foundlings to safety. The Imperial ship that had pulled them from hyperspace loomed below them. Their ship's power surged from the strain of dropping abruptly from hyperspace. The control panels under Paz's hands sparked and spat.

Flicking switches to see if he could restart the ship's operations, Paz grimaced as TIEs started to circle. He yelled for the Foundlings to hide in the hardened cabin and then shut the blast doors as soon as they said they were in.

The Imperial ship started to tow them into a hanger bay as the TIEs patrolled around them. Paz gave up trying to get the ship to respond and started readying his weapons.

****

If it had been another Mandalorian, Paz would have been proud of how long he lasted. Since it was him, he was just mad. The Stormtroopers were inching forward using their own dead as cover. Paz hissed as a bolt caught him in the arm at the edge of his vambrace.

He was going to run out of ammo belts in the next few minutes and the Imps hadn't run out of Stormtroopers yet. He was screwed and there was no way out for the Foundlings. He was going to fail them. Paz roared as another squad appeared to back up the ones he had pinned down.

They were going to breach his last defense line and hit the explosives any mom-

****

Paz blinked awake. He was so cold. He frowned as his eyes found the inside of his helmet, but his wrists said he was bare. He groaned as something sharp poked the skin over his ribs. His skin!

He tried to turn his head, but it was shoved back around hard enough to knock his head around inside his helmet.

"Awake, are you?"

Paz groaned again. "What the hell?" It came out garbled and half in Mando'a. He was bare everywhere except his helmet remained in place. Huh. He'd have thought they'd have stripped him bare to taunt him before torturing him to death.

"Speak Basic, you kriffing scum. You killed two platoons of Stormtroopers before that blast took out the remainder of a third platoon and you."

Paz grinned and tried to sound a smug as he could. "So, I'm dead."

His head was slammed back against the wall behind him by a growling Stormtrooper.

"You will be. They can't get into the last cabin on your ship, so the Admiral seems to think you must be hauling something secret for the late Emperor. The shoody paint job only half covers up that you are in an Imperial ship and everyone knows Mandos sell themselves to the highest bidder."

Paz lolled his head around to lean it against his outstretched arm where it was pulled towards the ceiling by restraints. He couldn't see through the helmet's visor well enough to tell how many Stormtroopers were in the room with him. Or maybe that was double vision from the explosion. "You haven't taken my helmet off."

The Stormtrooper in front of him stepped closer. "It matters to you, so I wanted you awake for the humiliation of losing it. I want to see your expression as I beat you to death."

Paz waited for him to get just a little closer. "You'll be waiting a little longer."

"Yeah? Why's that?"

Paz head-butted him.

****

When Paz swam back awake the Stormtrooper he had hit was still on the floor, so he'd not knocked himself out for long. Ah, well. He blinked and looked up at the next one standing out of range, probably not two since they were overlapping slightly. Kriffing assholes the smart ones were. Luckily they were pretty rare. Just not rare enough it seemed.

"Well?" Paz lifted his chin slightly. Maybe he could get them to come close enough. It was worth the try. "Get on with it, Imp."

The Stormtrooper squared their shoulders and started to approach as a miniature blaster floated in the open door from the hallway. It was like the ones Stormtroopers carried, but sized down for a smaller person.

"What the..." Paz had never seen anything quite like it. Floating without wavering, the cleanliness of it was a stark difference from the ones he was seeing welded by the Stormtroopers. He squinted trying to see if the weapon remained or was some sort of visual artifact from his head injury. It wasn't doubled like the rest of his vision, maybe he was bleeding in his brain somewhere.

The Stormtrooper tilted their head at Paz and snorted. "You can't trick me like that. There isn't anything behind me."

The floating blaster fired and all the remaining Stormtroopers went down before any of them got turned enough to even see where the fire was coming from. None of the shoots were out of place at all. Paz narrowed his eyes at it. Maybe he was hallucinating.

"No, you aren't hallucinating."

Paz frowned as the shortest Stormtrooper he'd even seen stepped into the room and the blaster floated down into their hands. His frown deepened as the restraints on him clicked themselves open.

"We need to go. I don't know the protocols for an Interceptor ship. And I'd rather not have to knock out the whole place. I don't know how important it might be."

Paz slid down to his knees as his legs gave out from under him. The blaster wound in his arm flared pain at him as he hit the floor. If he lived he was going to blame Din for this. Somehow. "What the..."

"Oh, has your Armorer not said anything about me? Hmm." The little Stormtrooper came closer and pulled off their oddly shaped helmet, almost Stormtrooper standard shape, but not quite right in the faceplates. The little girl underneath had red hair and a big grin. "Hello, I'm Kaleine. I'm on a mission to get Princess General more people to help train my...platoon. We got yanked down by the Interceptor while I was moving us. You felt like you needed a little help."

"Thank you." Paz covered himself with his hands. He wanted so many answers. Who the hell was this Princess General and why did this child, oh, Mand'alor, she was a _child_ in Stormtrooper armor, have a blaster sized to her? A child with a mission, what was that? A platoon implied more than just her and how did she know the Armorer? Also, he was very naked in front of a child. "Did you see the rest of my armor?"

She nodded. "Noilo is getting it clean." She cocked her head at him. "You should sleep and heal."

Paz suddenly was exhausted beyond all measure. "Wait..."

She patted his shoulder. "I just look like a Stormtrooper. You'll be okay. Promise."

Paz lay over on his side, his shoulder tingling where she'd touched, as his body pulled him down into blackness.

****

When Paz blinked awake to the ceiling above the bunk he used in the main cabin of his stolen ship he had a moment where he thought he'd just had a horrible dream, but then he turned his head and there was a ragged hole in the wall of the cabin.

Paz shot upright and stared down at himself. His armor was all in place. Scorch marks and all. The wound on his arm was not...there? It wasn't hurting and he couldn't see it. He looked again at the hole in the wall. It was one hole, no double vision. He didn't smell like bacta, but he had no wounds now. He patted himself down to double check. "What happened?"

The door slid open and a tiny dark skinned child stood there in the black under layer of a Stormtrooper's armor, but sized down to his small stature.

"Kaleine said you were waking. I'm Noilo."

"You're...Noilo. Alright." Paz adjusted how his helmet was sitting on his head as a Foundling stuck their head around the edge of the door. "Everyone alive?"

The Foundling nodded. "The little Jedi Troopers stole us and the ship from the Imps."

Jedi? They were _jetii_? He hadn't thought Stormtroopers allowed _jetii_ among their ranks.

"We're not Stormtroopers." Noilo frowned at him. "Kaleine is right that you have a bad head injury with you being so loud past the Force bending metal. Or it might be the helmet is cracked. The kids said we couldn't take it off you to check."

He blinked. "No one removed my helmet."

Noilo shook his head. "Kaleine checked the Stormtroopers' memories after the kids said it was very important. She's resting now though. She used a lot of energy."

Paz blew out a slow breath. Fine, none if that made sense. He'd work it out later. He pushed himself to his feet. "Who is piloting?"

****

Another one, they were _everywhere_. He'd counted at least eight armored children as he counted his Foundlings. At least the Foundlings were all accounted for and unharmed. Paz mentally sighed in relief that the explosion hadn't injured any of them as he entered the cockpit.

Paz looked over the armored shoulder of the child piloting and stared at the navigation. "Why are we headed to Nevarro?"

Noilo stepped up beside him. "Kaleine said your Armorer is without any of her Tribe and the kids said she's important. Kaleine said she thinks that means she's your Princess General, so we thought we'd help and we're the kids' protection until you are fully healed in any case."

His head swam as he turned it too fast at the sound of little boots behind him.

"It isn't just the Armorer needing help and we're going to be late, Noilo."

"This isn't the _Falcon_. And that one inner hull did not like having an explosion inside the ship."

"Hmmm." Kaleine pushed on his knee. "You should sit down. Your balance is still off."

Paz sat and stared at the small Stormtrooper-like helmet under Kaarl's feet. They were just children and should have become Foundlings if they were known to Mandalorians. Children that stole ships and people from Imps, apparently. "How do you know the Armorer?"

"We met several times in a dream." Kaleine clambered up the back of the pilots' seat. "How close are we, Kaarl?"

"Close. Don't back seat pilot me." Kaarl turned his head towards Paz. "I'm gonna need help with the landing part. I haven't done that yet."

Paz tried to lurch back to his feet, but his body just didn't move.

Kaleine turned to stare at him. "Easy. He knows how to fly, he just hasn't gotten much practice. The Princess General gets upset when we try to do more than she thinks we should."

Kaarl nodded. "Poe taught me all the crashing parts and the switches, but he hadn't gotten to takeoffs and landings yet."

"Poe?" Paz frowned at the name of this new adult he was going to have to hunt down.

"He saved us. Helped us even when the TIE pilot we kidnapped had a blaster wound to a lung."

Kaleine nodded and grinned. "He didn't even decommission the pilot like we figured, but Poe says the Resistance doesn't do that." She frowned. "Won't do that. They aren't needed yet and I think Poe is...what, our height right now?" She and Noilo exchanged looks. "Something like that. We can't check for sure. He lives too close to Master Luke."

Paz leaned his head against the bulkhead next to him. "Who is Master Luke?"

"Luke Skywalker? He blew up the first Death Star and helped kill the Emperor and all." Noilo turned towards Kaleine. "That's happened by now, right?"

She sighed. "Do you need more history lessons? Yes, that's happened. They are between the Empire and the First Order right now."

He could feel a headache coming on, but it wasn't actually hitting him. That was odd. "And you are soldiers." He made it a statement and stared at Kaleine as she frowned at him.

"We are very good at what we do." She turned towards Kaarl. "We'll show you if we get there fast enough."

"I'm going as fast as the ship can, Kaleine." Kaarl turned his head and glared at Kaleine. "Don't help it along either. You haven't eaten enough since you folded the Force moving us in the first place."

Kaleine sighed and flapped a hand at him. "I'm fine."

"Yeah, until you fall over."

Paz caught her tiny elbow in his hand. "Do you need food?"

"We have enough food to feed all twenty of us for a week. We will be alright. I'm just more tired than hungry."

Twenty. _Twenty_ of them? He had not seen twenty by any means. "Twenty?"

Kaleine smiled as she nodded. "I brought twenty out of forty-one of us. We needed to leave some of us at base to protect it and for me to aim for when we go back. We have it all worked out and we know just how much we can save without the Rebellion or the Empire noticing, but I'm not sure how long until I can try to get us moved on to our mission."

Half of them here. Forty-one total. He needed a drink. Several drinks. Possibly all the drinks. They were...Paz leaned his head harder into the bulkhead and let his helmet dig into his temple. "Your mission? What mission?"

Kaleine grinned as she dropped down from the back of the pilot's chair. "The mission we gave ourselves. We're getting Princess General more people. She always needs more people, but Master Luke is a little scared of us and we need training because none of us want to become evil. So we thought we'd get some not-Jedi that know what to do with the Force that can tell us how not to be evil."

"Not-Jedi?"

"Yes, they are called Guardians. There's only one place we know for sure that there were a pair that the Empire didn't publicly display when they were killed."

Paz pushed away his memories of the Night of a Thousand Tears. "Where is that?"

"The Battle of Scarif."

Paz lifted his head and stared at these tiny soldiers. "Scarif? The Scarif that blew half apart, that Scarif?"

Kaleine grinned. "Yes. I figured we'd be able to get nearly everyone under the planetary shield and as long as the Death Star plans are transmitted on time no one will know the difference. Red Five dying and Princess General getting out with R2-D2, C3PO, and the plans are the important parts."

Noilo shook his head a little. "And Darth Vader not sensing us."

Kaleine grinned wider. "That too. Although, I still say he was late to the battle so he could give Princess General a running start."

Noilo and Kaarl both sighed.

Paz rubbed his neck where his headache wasn't really started yet. He definitely needed all the drinks. "How long until we get to Nevarro?"

"Not long."

****


	7. Weapons to Share

****

Cara hadn't expected to see the Mandalorian again. The kid trailing him was the same as she remembered and cooed when he saw her. They settled at a table as he told her why he'd come to see her. She grinned when he said he was going up against an Imperial warlord. She could use some excitement. And the chance to kill Imps was worth a lot too. 

The ship he had looked run down, but it felt solid as he lifted them off Sorgan. The weapons cabinet he opened was just about what she expected him to have as a Mandalorian. Him telling her to pick a weapon, that was...generous. Him leaning, relaxed against the wall, as she looked over his array of weapons, was nice. He was freer with his words answering her questions too. She was happy he seemed to like her well enough to be so relaxed.

The kid knocking them around playing with the ship controls? That was annoying. She had to twist hard to keep from landing against Mando on that one sharp banking turn. Yeah, she wasn't babysitting the thing, but they'd need someone to help with that. She and Mando would both be needed to fight.

At least he seemed to have an idea for a babysitter. She gave the little one a smile and waited for Mando to get them back into hyperspace. "Figured out a name for him, yet?"

Mando sighed. "Not yet." He tilted his helmet to face more towards her. "Thank you."

She tried to push down the warm feeling in the pit of her stomach. "I haven't even killed anyone yet."

He shook his head slightly and turned back to the ship's controls. "You know what I meant."

"Yeah." She patted the kid on the head as Mando handed it a shiny...was that a knob off the controls? "I'll do my absolute best."

"I know."

She hoped he knew what else she meant because she didn't think she was ready to say that part out loud. She settled into the chair across from the kid and itched for a weapon to clean. Mando didn't seem in a hurry to head back down to his weapon cabinet and she wasn't stupid enough to look through it without him watching.

****

The Ugnaught did not endear himself to Cara at all. Maybe it was a complement for him to say she was so pretty she must have been from a gene farm, but, well, she kind of wanted to hit him for it.

Cara watched Mando closely as he stayed tensed even after their host said the droid was reprogrammed. She didn't know for sure what the deal was, but she knew Mando didn't like droids and a hunter that once tried to kill the kid would be even worse.

She followed the others out into the growing night and listened with a half an ear as Mando asked to hire the Ugnaught, Kuiil he said his name was, to help them. She bit the inside of her cheek so she wouldn't laugh when Mando sighed heavy after Kuiil said he was bringing along the droid and blurrgs.

She waited for Mando to come back closer to the house. "Blurrgs?"

He gestured to the ugly beast in the pen nearby. "Them. These are all females because they eat the males during mating."

She raised an eyebrow at him and he sighed again. She gestured back towards the house. "The droid will be some extra fire power at least."

He dropped his head a tiny bit forward and she just knew he was regretting his life choices. "If he doesn't just kill us and the kid."

"If he tries, we'll get him." Cara clapped Mando on the shoulder and headed for the blurrgs. She needed to see how touchy they were going to be.

She carefully inched closer to the pen and spoke soft nonsense to the animals.

"You know the Mandalorian."

Cara did _not_ startle, thank you very much. She turned and looked down at Kuiil standing there with a pack in his hands. "Somewhat. He hired me to help him defend a farming village a few months back. And now to kill Imps."

"He watches you."

"Does he?" Cara frowned. "That worry you?"

"It does not." Kuiil thrust the pack up towards her. "I have seen you watching him as well."

She snatched the bag and turned away. "He isn't interested in me that way. And, I shouldn't be interested."

"There is interest on both sides." He touched her hip lightly and then held up his hand when she turned back towards him. "I have spoken."

****

Later, Din would not have been able to say what had caused him to agree to arm wrestle Cara. He'd only be able to remember the sudden spike of fear when he'd realized the child was choking her. Din had only seen brute strength out of him, not the finesse seen in chocking Cara.

He understood Cara's anger. He was almost glad when she turned her anger on Kuiil instead of the child. Din wasn't sure if he could have kept the child from killing her if it actually came down to it. He could still picture the mudhorn floating if he thought about it.

Changing the subject seemed the best choice. That and getting Cara weapons to clean. That seemed to defuse things.

Din wondered if Cara had any idea what it meant to let her have her pick of the weapons he kept. He thought she might when she didn't try to take the Amban, but instead latched onto a heavy repeater that he liked, but didn't often get to use.

He wished he could give her a better idea of the Imp they were up against. If it was one that had killed a lot of her fellows she should get to know they were being avenged. 

He wasn't surprised when the droid telling them a meal was ready killed his hunger. He'd eat later in his bunk. Having to defend his position against the droid to Cara wasn't unexpected. She seemed able to read him well even with no facial expressions visible to her.

She didn't tell him he was being unreasonable at least. He listened to her go below to eat and stifled the urge to sigh. He missed her quiet presence and the low sounds of her cleaning weapons already.

****

Sitting on the blurrg's back, Cara had to bite the inside of her mouth to keep from laughing at the posturing Guild man. Mando wasn't afraid of them, none of them looked like a match to her or him. The guy picking up the kid was the only touchy spot and she definitely noticed that no one exchanged names.

The blurrg was easy enough riding and Cara did her best not to upset the hunters leading them any time one of them turned their head to check were Mando's people were.

She was only a little worried about camping. She didn't like to think that Mando wasn't going to sleep at all. She should have tried to get him to agree to a watch schedule with her before they had left the ship, but she hadn't really thought they'd overnight before fighting.

He was pretty easy going about being ordered around. Maybe she'd be able to just say she was taking the second watch and see if he went along with it.

The lava fields were hot, but not so hot she felt the need to change her braid. She'd just redone it before they left the ship and she really didn't want to touch it again until after they were done fighting.

She wasn't sure if Mando making Karga go over the plan again was just Mando fussing, or if he was judging something from the way Karga responded. 

One thing she did know, if Karga ever said nothing could go wrong again she was going to shoot him herself. The flying creatures that attacked were fast enough she couldn't lead them well enough to hit them. Or she was hitting, but not doing any damage.

As the creatures tried to take the second blurrg she found they did go down under fire. Alright then, just fast, the kriffing things. Cara kept an eye on Mando because he had control of the child's pram. She didn't think the hunters were hardened enough to try to use this time to snatch the baby, but she didn't want to be caught out.

And there was her other reason to keep him in sight. She moved to bare fire down on the creature trying to take Mando, but it turned tail when Mando hit it with his flamethrower. She hoped he'd not been scored because she didn't want to have to argue him out of his armor. She didn't think he'd let her win on that one.

The fire seemed to do the trick and the remaining creature followed the one lit up by Mando.

Karga going down and insisting he was fine wasn't great. Damn wound was open and terrible looking in the firelight.

Cara ordered him to stay still as she rummaged for her med kit. She could see poison lines snaking up his arm. That was bad.

She told Karga not to be so dramatic and she franticly tried to find a way out for him. He was bound to double cross them, but he shouldn't have to die from just trying to get a second helping of food.

The kid appeared at her elbow. How had he gotten out of his pram? She tried to get someone to take the thing away, she had no idea what sort of poison this really was since the scanner's readout was fast and bad with no standard name. She didn't want to see the kid poisoned from contact.

Kuiil saying to wait made her mad enough she about threw the useless scanner at him, but well, the kid was doing something.

She didn't feel anything, but the wounds were _changing_. They were fading. She watched the kid drop onto his butt and stared at him stunned for a few moments. Then, she looked up at Mando staring down at the child as well. Great, he hadn't known the child could do this either.

It wasn't that she didn't know the signs. She'd heard the stories, she'd read the mission reports and she got that everyone thought the Force was something some people could use, but...She'd seen far more people just...die. No mystical Force saved them. It sure as shit hadn't ever helped her.

****

Walking the next day wasn't terrible, but Cara watched how much they outdistanced Kuill on the remaining blurrg. She watched the Guild men talking ahead of them. Oh, yeah, that was ambush talk. She prodded Mando not because she didn't think he could see it, but to see what he thought of a timetable to it.

Not yet. Yeah, he was probably right. They'd want to shot her and Mando from the back if they could. That'd be pretty much their only chance. She checked their distance to Kuill again. He didn't have a weapon, but he had eyes and a vested intrest in Mando living so she figured he'd yell a warning if he needed to do so.

Yep, there went the two lackeys hanging back enough to get behind her and Mando. Karga slowing down a bit. She widened her distance from Mando to give the two behind them more room to hit Karga when they fired and she dodged.

And there it...was. Huh. He'd shot his own people. That was...different. She kept her blaster trained on him as he tried to talk Mando into believing his change of heart sob story. Maker, but he couldn't be serious thinking that Mando was going to buy this load of rancor shit.

There he went appealing to Mando through the kid. That'd do it. She had to force herself not to roll her eyes. It wasn't the Karga was wrong. The Imp after the kid needed to be killed. All Imps needed to be killed in her book, but damn if she was going to trust Karga not to turn and shoot Mando as soon as the Imp was down.

Oh, of course. Walking right into a trap. Well, at least they weren't taking the kid into the trap. That was something at least. Yes, yes, she knew she'd need to cover her stripes. Maker, but there had better just be the four guards.

She was going to shoot Karga herself if there were more than four guards on the Imp.

****

That was...far more than four. Shit. The Scout Trooper asking to buy Mando's helmet was just the top of this new pile of shit. Cara kept from smirking as Mando fussed at Karga about the helmet going on Karga's wall by counting up the Stormtroopers she could see. There were at least ten in the first courtyard alone and they were not anywhere near the head Imp yet. She was so going to shoot Karga.

The talk on the way to the cantina didn't help Karga in any way. Oh, she didn't care that there were only four inside with the head Imp she was still going to shoot Karga when she had the chance.

She hung back as the head Imp was creepy toward Mando. That was...yeah, she was going to enjoy watching this Imp die and she was never letting Karga forget there hadn't been just four guards.

The Imp asking to see the child was something they maybe should have had a plan for. Well, there was nothing for it. They were going to get pinned down in here and...Oh, that was rich, the bastard having to take a call. Maybe he wasn't as high up the chain as they thought.

She dropped into a crouch and dove for Mando as the heavy blaster fire took out the Imp and the guards on him. The kriffing hell?

She moved with Mando as a unit to get line of sight on the courtyard and that was a kriffing company of Stormtroopers and six Death Troopers. Oh, yeah, she was going to shoot Karga if she lived through this.

****


	8. Enemies by Fire

****

Kuill knew the moment the Mandalorian's voice came through the comm that there was a dwindling chance for the child to remain out of Imperial hands. He urged his blurrg to speed. She was a good mount and would do her best to see them to safety.

He would have to try to get the child to the New Republic. That would be the only hope. He kept his eyes on the ship growing larger in the distance.

The Mandalorian's voice telling him they were pinned down and to take the child and run made Kuiil urge his mount on all the harder. The ship was growing. They were nearly there...

Suddenly he was falling and Kuill curled to protect the child, but the child tumbled out of his arms as though they weren't there. He pushed himself to his feet to find...Oh. He had failed then.

There lay his smoking body, his blurrg on her side, and the child a bundle on the ground. Kuill frowned as the Scout Trooper scooped the child up and sped away.

"No!" He started to follow, though he was dead he was still here and there was...He jerked to a stop as something tugged him back towards his body. He watched helplessly as IG-11 followed the Scouts back towards the town. He could not follow. He was trapped.

Kuiil despaired as IG-11 disappeared over a rise. There was a rumble behind him and Kuill turned to look past his body to see a ship, old Imperial in shape, if not color, landing near to the Mandalorian's Razor Crest.

The ramp for the new ship lowered and out hurried...small Stormtroopers? One held their hand outstretched towards Kuiil's body. Kuill watched as they were trailed from the ship by another Mandalorian in blue painted armor, larger through the shoulders than the one Kuill was helping.

"He's smoking. He's dead."

One of the small Stormtroopers pulled their helmet off and looked straight at him. Him, Kuill, not at his body laying on the ground.

"He's not gone yet." She cocked her head. "Sorry, this is going to hurt some."

That was not the proper description. It hurt more than Kuill remembered anything in his life hurting, but when the pain passed he opened his eyes to look up at the tiny Stormtroopers standing over him.

"Don't move yet. You were actually shot."

"The child...was taken. My blurrg." He tried to roll to see her body, but there was a noise like her bellows when she was unhappy.

"Smelly thing, but we managed to shield her better than you. Sorry about that. We were later than I wanted to be.The ship we came in needs repairs."

Kuill wasn't sure he knew what she was talking about. He blinked as the big Mandalorian knelt down beside him. 

"The child?"

Kuiil forced his arm to come up and point towards the town. "The Scouts took him. Small, green, wrapped in a blue blanket, huge ears. They..." He frowned as the little Stormtroopers all turned and started towards the ships. "What are these little ones?"

The big Mandalorian waved forward a teenage sized humanoid that didn't have any armor on, Stormtrooper or Mandalorian, and Kuill was being lifted. "I...don't exactly know. I do know they like my Tribe, of which the Mandalorian that should be guarding the child is a member. And there is no talking them out of something once they decide on it. I need to go with them since they are heading for the danger."

"You are friends with the Mandalorian that watches over the child?" Kuill watched wide eyed as his blurrg rose from the ground to float with them towards the Mandalorian's ship.

"Yes." The man nodded to the teenager and Kuill got a look at the backs of little Stormtroopers as they turned far enough to see the new ship. "Don't worry. We'll get the child back and then I'm going to beat some sense into a certain Mandalorian."

Kuill would have protested, but another small Stormtrooper pressed close to the teenager carrying him and their touch to Kuill's forehead sent him into sleep.

****

Paz stared at the now-not-dead being as one of the older Foundlings set him down next to the blurrg that one of Kaleine's troopers had floated into Din's ship. The rest of the Foundlings piled in beside the beast and the Ugnaught. Four of the armored children marched into Din's ship behind them.

Paz clapped the last one on the shoulder before sealing the ship up and setting the ground defense protocols.

"We need to go. A squad of Stormtroopers were just killed in the town."

Paz nodded. He hoped that meant they wouldn't be needed to fight. He followed Noilo back into their ship. He lifted them off with Kaarl watching every flick of a switch that Paz made. "How much energy did that take?"

Noilo shoved a ration bar into Kaleine's hand. "More than it should have."

"The big animal was surprisingly hard to hold still enough to fool the Scout Troopers."

"They were so stupid they didn't even check they'd actually killed either of them."

Paz followed the ground as low as he could get as they curved towards the town. "The body was smoking. That usually means they are dead."

Noilo snorted. "That doesn't matter. You still check. They could be faking or booby trapped. You kick them in the delicate places to see if they are still living. Or if you think they might be and they aren't supposed to be, you just shoot them."

Paz mentally winced. These children did not play around. Kriff. He was going into a battle alongside actual children. He was never going to hear the end of it from the Armorer.

Kaleine sighed and patted him on the back of his vambrace. "We aren't children. I've explained this."

Suddenly all the children made identical hurt noises.

"What is it?" Paz nudged Kaleine's leg with his knee. "What happened?"

She hissed and started adjusting the armor on her arms. "The commanding officer just killed a man for trying to give a report."

Noilo settled his helmet onto his head. "You know they are just numbers to the higher officers. Always."

Kaleine huffed. "Yes, but I hadn't felt that senseless of a death in a long time." She turned to look up at Paz. "The Resistance doesn't have officers like that."

He nodded. "There shouldn't be officers like that. A timely report can mean victory or defeat."

She cocked her head. "More information is better. Yes, that makes sense. Everyone matters. That what Poe says."

Paz adjusted his mental list to only maiming this Poe instead of killing him when Paz had the chance to hunt him down.

****

Paz slowed slightly as they came upon a pair of very dead Scout Troopers and one badly damaged speeder. The droid they had seen walking away from Din's ship was on the move then. The children were quiet as they flew on.

Kaarl glanced up from watching Paz's hands on the ship controls. "You think the droid killed those two?"

"You all keep saying things like you can hear my thoughts." Paz tightened their flight line to shave a few seconds off their expected arrival time.

Kaleine patted Kaarl on the shoulder. "That's because I can hear your thoughts and I'm linked to my platoon. Your armor bends the Force enough I don't get everything and I've not invaded. That would be evil. That happened to Poe when he was captured and healing him was hard. You just had rattled brains so that's easier to fix."

"Is that why the headache I should have isn't happening?"

Kaleine nodded and turned to yell back into the ship. "Armor up!" She turned back and looked up at him with a tilt of her head. "I usually link us together, but I'm not sure if you'd be willing to link. You seem very touchy about us being under-height. We think the link would work past the way your armor bends the Force."

Paz forced himself not to think about how they were _children_. "What does this linking thing do?"

Kaleine was handed a blaster and she went through the fastest, smoothest weapon check Paz had seen in a long time. "Everyone in the link can tell status and location of everyone else. No comms needed." She handed the weapon to Kaarl, took the next weapon handed to her, and checked it.

Paz pushed the ship low across the last few hills to bring the city into view. "What happens if someone is injured in the link?"

"Everyone knows, but the pain doesn't share. That would be counterproductive."

Counterproductive, she says. Paz gritted his teeth for a moment before forcing himself to relax. They didn't have time for arguments. "I'll accept this link as long as you don't gather what I look like without my helmet from my memory."

Kaleine patted his vambrace. "We haven't and won't look for your face. The children were very clear about it when we were kidnapping you all."

Paz pressed his eyes shut for a moment and then went back to piloting. They were about to reach the city.

****

Din had known that walking into the Client's lair was risky, but he had thought the worst outcome would have Cara and him dead and Karga holding the child, but this... 

Moff Gideon. Din needed a drink. 

He counted Stormtroopers as he watched and waited for whatever Gideon was waiting on.

The E-web being setup wasn't good. It could blast right through the cantina's walls and cut them down where they stood.

He moved smoothly with Cara to uncover a sewer vent they could use to escape if they could get through the grate. They could regroup and he would enlist the help of his Tribe to rescue the kid before Gideon could take the little womp rat off Nevarro. No matter what it took. 

Cara shooting the grate hardly changed the temperature of the metal.

Din blinked hard as Gideon used their full names to show how much the man knew of them. He really wanted to know how the man knew Cara was with him. She hadn't been scanned at any point that Din had noticed.

Gideon knowing who he was was infuriating, but not unexpected. And, of course, he knew Karga had been in charge. That was no great secret. Din shifted and counted enemies again as Gideon teased a deal that they all knew the man would not uphold.

Din watched Cara stare in his direction for a few moments before she settled in to wait. 

Din steadied his breathing as he listened to Karga panic a little before he found a liquor bottle to raid.

Cara stayed calmer and Din tried to ground himself with that as the flashbacks to the day he lost his parents hit him. The feel of his mother's hand sliding around his back and the back of his head as they fled. His father's panting in his ear as Din watched their neighbors fall under weapons' fire behind them. The jostling and how tightly he tried to hold on so his Father could move without having to spare thought to holding onto him. He hadn't understood at the time why his parents hadn't followed him down into the storage cellar. They would have all fit. He could still picture the droid that stood over him before the Death Watch had cut it down and motioned for him to emerge to be flown to safety.

Din shook himself from his thoughts and got back to the practical. Gideon hadn't killed them yet. So, that meant he didn't have the kid as Din had thought. He tried again to get Kuiil to answer, but even in his desperation, Din knew the Imps had overheard them, followed the comm signal. Kuiil wouldn't be answering.

The kid cooing on the link? Now that was both the best and worst thing Din had heard yet. It meant the child wasn't dead, but...Yeah, the droid saying Kuiil was terminated wasn't reassuring at all.

To nurse and protect, the droid said. That didn't sound ominous in the least. Din hated droids so much. He sighed as Cara shifted against the wall again. 

****

Weapons fire started up in the city as they chested the last rise before the edge of town. Paz cursed and wished he had any more he could pull out of the ship to get it to go any faster. Landing in all that was going to be rough.

Kaleine huffed. "Don't worry about landing. Just roll the hatch side down and slow up as we go over top."

Paz started to protest, but Kaarl was already throwing switches. "None of you have repelling gear or jetpacks."

Noilo shrugged. "We don't need that." He turned to leave the cockpit. "We're ready, Kaleine."

She nodded and then she yanked a glove off her hand. "I'm going to need to touch you to make sure the link takes. Ready?"

He wasn't, but Paz nodded anyway.

She wormed her hand under his cowl and touched him just above where his chest plate started.

The effect was instantaneous. Paz blinked as there was no adjustment period. One moment he was him and the next he was still him with twenty others nestled in with him. He could tell where they all were, he could see from their eyes as though they were his own as well as his own eyes.

Paz marveled that it wasn't overwhelming as he followed them from the cockpit. He could feel Kaarl making adjustments with the Force as the ship rolled up on its side and they jumped into the battle. Paz hadn't ever felt the Force, but there is was as though he used it everyday.

The descent was like having a Rising Phoenix without the fire. No one tumbled as they dropped onto their targets. None needed to adjust and no one missed. Paz could tell it was Kaleine making sure he landed in the middle. They were protecting him even as they started laying down covering fire as a woman in durasteel armor hauled a limp Din towards the cantina's door.

Paz didn't need to look around to know he could cover Din and the woman hauling him from the remaining Death Troopers as the Stormtroopers around them dropped with fast efficiency. The sense that reinforcements were approaching strengthened as the last of the Stormtroopers around them went down. The remaining Death Troopers formed up around an officer with a cape that was holding back in cover.

They all followed the droid into the cantina and Kaleine triggered the door to shut behind them just as Paz entered last.

Paz staggered to kneel next to Din and the armored woman as the feeling of _together, but not_ disappeared and Kaleine flopped down on her back next to them.

Din's breathing was ragged as the woman held his head steady as she stared at them.

"Paz?"

Paz scooted closer as he thrust a ration bar into Kaleine's upraised hand. "You sound bad, Din."

Din huffed as the woman curled a little closer to him.

"Easy. Stay with me." She glanced at the children spread around the cantina and then refocused on Din. "You just got your bell rung. You're gonna be fine."

Din lolled his head towards Paz just a bit and the woman pulled her hand out from under his head covered in blood.

Paz could hear the droid going to work on the grate of the sewer access as he stared at Din's blood.

"Go. Cara, go. Leave me."

Kaleine made an indignant noise around her mouthful of ration bar. 

Paz frowned. "No."

"No." Cara glanced at him as they spoke at the nearly same time. She reached for Din's helmet. "I need to take this off..."

Din grabbed her wrist to stop her, but didn't hurt her to keep her from continuing. She stopped as soon as he started to reach for her, so Paz just watched as Din struggled to tell her it was forbidden to be removed.

She glanced between Din and him before shaking her head. "Please." She hunched closer to Din. " _Please,_ Mando."

"Leave me. Keep the child safe."

Paz turned his head to look at the child watching quietly where it stood on the floor between them and the droid cutting open the sewer access.

Cara shook her head as she tried to hold back tears. "We can make it."

Din reached into his cowl and pulled out his pendant. He pulled it off and pressed it into Cara's hands. "Take this. Show it to the Covert and...and tell them it is from Din Djarin. T-tell them the child was in my...care. They'll...help you."

Paz leaned closer. "Din."

Din's head tilted a little, like he did when he was amused. "I'm seeing things, Cara." He panted for a few breaths. "Just...let me have a warrior's death." He pushed Cara's hand that held the pendant towards her chest. "This is the Way."

Cara started to cry silently as she looked to Paz. She kept Din's hand in her own with the pendant between them.

He started to open his mouth to tell Din he wasn't hallucinating, when Kaleine and all the Jedi Troopers turned their heads as one. That was not good. "What is it?"

Kaleine sat up and stuffed the rest of the ration bar in her mouth and started chewing faster.

Noilo peeked out the ruined window and ducked back down. "Yeah. It's an Incinerator Trooper. Headed this way at walking speed."

Kaleine turned towards the sewer access. "We need to go."

They started huddling up around the droid still cutting on the sewer access.

Cara looked at Paz. "Tell him to let us help. We can save him."

Din's breathing was harsh in the few moments it took Paz to form an answer.

"It is his choice. He trusts you to protect the child in his steed."

Cara's tears fell heavy as her breathing stuttered. "I won't leave him." She started to pull on Din's shoulder like she was going to haul him up to move him.

"Everyone down!"

Paz curled forward and helped her cover Din as flames came in above their heads.

The fire receded and Paz looked helplessly between Din, Cara, the range of children, and the droid almost through the access. He gripped Cara's elbow. "He has entrusted the child to you. Do not shame him."

She looked like she was considering the merits of murdering him.

Paz heard the Incinerator Trooper's weapon whoosh and he turned to try to put himself between the flames and the children.

Cara made a scared noise he could barely hear over the flames, but they didn't engulf him as he expected.

Paz watched as the child, Din's tiny Foundling, stood up straight and held his hands towards the fire. The wall of fire that was no longer advancing, but whirling in the air before them. Then, the tiny being flicked his hand and the flames turned to blow back into the Trooper. The force of it blew the Trooper straight out of the building.

Paz stared at the child along with Din and Cara as the child slumped down onto its haunches and then clear over onto its back.

The droid stood up and kicked the sewer access panel until it gave way at the cut lines.

The Guild man stood up and started for the hole through the gathered Jedi Troopers. "We need to go."

"Go. Just...go." Din pulled his hand from Cara's hold.

The droid picked up the child and stepped past Kaleine to come towards Cara. "Protect the child and I will stay with the Mandalorian." 

Cara pushed past Paz and let the droid put the child into her arms. She looked up at the droid. "You promise you'll bring him."

"You have my word." The droid stepped carefully around Paz to take Cara's place at Din's side.

Paz felt a shiver go down his spine. He patted Din's hand and stood up to follow the children. The Way had little to say about if droids counted as living. "I'll escort them, Din."

Din sighed and let his head relax to rest on the debris he was leaned against.

****

In the sewer tunnels, Paz stayed back and let the Guild man think he was leading as Kaleine chewed the last of her ration bar and listened with a cocked head to the tunnel behind them.

Cara carried Din's Foundling and ignored Paz like he didn't exist. She kept glancing at the Jedi Troopers like she wanted to ask for details, but didn't know where to start.

One of the children started keeping pace with Paz.

He looked down at the helmet that now sported dirt smears. "What?"

"I'm Koja."

"Alright."

Her helmet tilted so she'd be able to look up at him with one eye. "You know his helmet has to come off to heal him."

"I do." Paz ignored Cara turning to glare at him as they rounded a corner in the tunnels. "I also know droids aren't considered to be living beings."

Koja nodded. "Ah. The rest of us had to leave so it was just him and the droid."

"Yes." Paz nudged on Cara standing frozen in the tunnel staring at him to get her moving again. "It is his choice now. He hates droids so I lay it at fifty-fifty odds."

Cara snorted and shifted the child and her weapon so she was better balanced.

The Guild man stopped at the next intersection. "This place is a maze."

There was noise from back the direction they had come. Paz turned to face the noise as Cara readied her weapon. Paz gently pushed Koja behind himself as they waited to see what was coming.

****


	9. Sin to a Lava River

****

Din knew he was dying. He was seeing Paz and a bunch of small Stormtroopers with odd faceplates. He couldn't think straight and talking was...hard.

He needed Cara to take the kid and go. She could keep the little womp rat safe. They'd be alright. Din tried to make himself focus because there was Paz leaning over him again. He tried to make sure he pronounced his name right so Cara would be able to tell the Tribe....Wait, hadn't she heard it with Gideon?...Din blinked. He couldn't remember right now. Everything was so difficult.

Din pulled his necklace off. It'd work for getting the Tribe to help Cara and the kid. He could barely feel Cara's fingers as he tried to press the pendant into her hand.

_You'll be alright if you let us help._

Din blinked hard several times. Moving his eyes to look at Paz hurt. Everything hurt. He wasn't going to last long enough to cover the others' retreat if he was already having thoughts that didn't make any sense.

The little girl that sat up beside Paz was eating a ration bar. What Din wouldn't give for something to eat. He was hungry and nauseous at the same time. He wanted to ask Cara something. It was important...Din heard her saying she couldn't leave him.

Did she mean the kid? He hoped so. She needed to take the kid and go. Survive for him.

_Are all Mandalorians as stubborn as you and Paz?_

Din tried to press the pendant into Cara's hand. He was...losing the battle with his wounds. Stray thoughts that he didn't think he'd thought were definitely a sign he was dying.

Then there was fire.

Din tried to curl his arms up to wrap around Cara, but his body wasn't responding.

The fire receded. Cara was talking to Paz? That made no sense. Paz wasn't really there, Din was just seeing things.

The illusionary tiny Stormtroopers started moving around. It made Din more nauseous.

The specter of Paz turn sharply and there was more fire coming to burn them, but...Din forced himself to left his head to witness the kid...His little womp rat held the flames back.

Din stared at his Foundling as the flames flew back the direction they had come from and fried the Incinerator Trooper. Yeah, there went the kid over onto his back. Din wondered how long he'd be out for this time.

Was a wall of fire worse or better than a mudhorn defending its egg?

_Why do mudhorns come from eggs?_

Din let his head fall back as his vision of Paz promised to escort Din's group.

The droid loomed over him and Din squinted trying to keep him in focus. Well, it was better to die by droid than by Imp. He let himself settle as the sounds of Cara climbing through the grate faded.

He'd smile, but it hurt too much. "Do it."

The droid's movements stopped for a moment. "Do what?"

Din would have huffed if he had any energy left. "Just get it over with. I'd rather you kill me than some Imp."

_So stubborn, you Mandalorians. Droids aren't living in the same way as organics. Let him help._

Din blinked. Great, he was really losing it.

"I told you I am no longer a hunter. I am a nurse droid."

He wanted to shake his head, but he might throw up if he moved more. "IGs are all hunters." That was why he'd shot the thing in the first place.

"Not this one. I was reprogrammed. I need to remove your helmet if I am to save you." IG-11 reached for his helmet.

Din readying his blaster was reflexive. "Try it and I'll kill you. It is...forbidden. No living thing has seen me without my helmet since I s-swore the Creed."

_So stubborn. Also, someone needs to explain this Creed to me._

Din watched the droid scan from him down to the blaster and back. He wanted to live, but he was stubborn. He wanted his _beskar'gam_ more.

"I am not a living thing."

_You know what beskar is? You have to live. Let him help you. Please._

Din felt the droid tug the helmet up and off. Why was he allowing this? A droid helping him. A droid. The air hitting his face is when he realized just how much he'd bled. He absently listened to IG-11 tell him how the bacta spray would heal him within a matter of hours. He lowered his blaster as the spray hit.

Suddenly, it didn't hurt and that hit him like a blaster bolt. He blinked several times and roamed his eyes around without moving his head just to look at how much focus he had now. Huh, the entire place was a smoldering burnt out wreck.

_That's what Incinerator Troopers are for._

He tested moving his head slightly. He was still getting the weird thoughts. He watched IG-11 looking at him.

"You have suffered damage to your central processing unit."

Din glanced around trying to tell if he was still seeing things. "You mean my brain?"

"That was a joke. It is meant to put you at ease."

Din raised his eyebrows and chuckled, though he tried to hold it in. He groaned as he turned his head towards this droid Kuiil had worked so hard on.

_Reinforcements are coming. You need to hurry up._

His weird thoughts were right. They needed to move.

Getting down into the sewer was just as undignified as Din figured it would be. He hoped to never speak of it to anyone. They staggered forward with Din pulling them off course as his balance didn't want to adjust to him being upright and mobile.

They rounded a corner and for a moment Din was sure he'd actually died somewhere along the way.

There were little Stormtroopers all over the tunnel and Paz was standing next to one of them, shielding the child sized Imp from him.

_We aren't Imps. You need to rest, you know._

Cara surged forward and exchanged the kid for him from the droid. "Hey, there. I've got you."

Din let himself lean because he was still near death given how his vision was acting.

They moved forward and Din noted the child-size Stormtroopers formed up around them like they were protecting them.

"Din."

Din turned his head towards the imaginary Paz.

Paz clapped him gently on the shoulder. 

Din blinked and let his weight sag against Cara for a moment as he realized he'd felt Paz's touch. That he was...there. What? Had Paz come from the covert to help them all by himself? That didn't make any sense. Rescue wouldn't have just been Paz. He looked around at the little Stormtroopers without moving his head.

He straightened up and told Cara he could walk. He felt wobbly, but he needed to be sure of himself before he starting asking Paz questions.

They rounded another corner. Din suddenly felt like he couldn't breathe. The pile of armor on the tunnel floor was...so large.

****

Paz frowned as they turned a corner to bring them to the Forge and found...armor? It wasn't....Paz carefully looked it all over. That was a spare, that had been broken in a spar, that had been outgrown...

Din turned on Karga and yelled at him, demanding to know if he'd done this.

Paz drifted closer to the pile, trying to place anything as currently belonging on someone.

Din yelled at Karga again as the man denied being involved.

"Enough. It is not his fault."

Everyone turned towards the Forge as the Armorer started to come out only to stop short at the sight of Kaleine's group. She cocked her head for a moment and then continued forward to the pile as she spoke about the consequences of showing themselves above ground.

Paz looked from the pile to the Armorer and back. Why was she implying everyone was dead? Paz's eye was caught by Din dropping his hold on Karga. Oh. Oooooh, Din wouldn't know it was armor waiting to return to the Forge. He didn't see the rest of the Tribe often enough to even know everyone's names. The outsiders they had with them wouldn't know this wasn't armor in current use. That meant the Imps wouldn't know either when they got this far into the tunnels.

They all followed the Armorer into the heart of the Forge.

Kaleine took her helmet off and stood near the Armorer's low table. "Have you thought about what you'd charge for armor for us?"

Paz turned his head to stare at her.

The Armorer put a vambrace into the Forge to melt. "I have. You are well from your last visit?"

"I am. You didn't hurt me."

"What?" Paz grimaced as the Armorer turned her head sharply in his direction.

" _Where_ are your Foundlings, Paz Vizla?"

Kaleine went up on her tiptoes to watch the next bit of armor melt. "They are in Din's ship with guards posted. They are defended."

The Armorer considered this for a moment. She turned away from the Forge to cast something on her work bench. "Show me the one who safety deemed such destruction."

Din stepped forward and gestured to the tiny green being that had thrown a full-grown Trooper to a fiery death. "This is the one."

Paz thought the Armorer's head tilt of confusion was just as big as his would have been before the events of the last few days.

"This is the one that you hunted, then saved?" The Armorer's voice rose on the last word, as though she couldn't quite wrap her head around the idea.

Paz knew just how that felt.

"Yes. The one that saved me as well."

Paz frowned as the Armorer tilted her head slightly to get a better look at the child. "From the mudhorn?"

"Yes." Din sounded like he needed to sit down.

Paz was going to have to pry that story out of Din. He remembered the state of Din's armor after facing the mudhorn.

"It looks helpless."

Paz almost opened his mouth to say it most definitely wasn't helpless, when Din squared his shoulders and stepped a little closer to the child as the little guy cooed.

"It's injured, but it is _not_ helpless. Its species can move objects with its mind."

Paz nodded faintly, thinking about the drop from his ship, the ship itself flying on to land near Din's without physical fingers on the controls, and a tiny green hand flinging a full grown man back with whoosh Paz could still hear if he let himself think about it.

The Armorer lifted a ladle of molten metal from the Forge. "I know of such things. The songs of eons past tell of battles between Mandalore the Great, and an order of sorcerers called Jedi that fought with such powers."

Paz looked at Kaleine where she was watching everything the Armorer did with quiet determination.

"It is an enemy?" Din sounded worried that the Armorer would say it was.

Paz put his hand on the shoulder of the closest of the Jedi Trooper children. They were _narudar_ if nothing else. The enemies of Imps were most definitely his friends.

Kaleine grinned at him.

"No, its kind were enemies, but this individual is not." The Armorer looked at Kaleine as she lay aside the ladle.

Din gestured towards the child. "What is it?"

"It is a Foundling. By Creed, it is in your care." The Armorer turned towards Paz. "Just as these armored Foundlings are in Paz's care."

"You wish me to train this thing?" Din pointed at the child as it gurgled happily.

The Armorer looked up from the work she was doing. "It is too weak. It would die. You must reunite it with its own kind."

"Where?"

"This you must determine."

Din made another restless gesture with his hands. "You expect me to search the galaxy for the home of this creature and deliver it to a race of enemy sorcerers?"

"This is the Way."

Paz bit his lip so he wouldn't automatically repeat the phrase. How as he going to get Kaleine's group back to their people if they were in the future? The kid whose shoulder he had rested his hand on patted his forearm in a kind of comforting way.

The Armorer started banging on the cast she'd made.

The Rebel Trooper stepped forward as Din stared at the child. "Hey." She looked between Din and the Armorer and then at Paz. "These tunnels will be lousy with Imps in a matter of minutes. We should at least discuss an escape plan."

"If you follow the descending tunnel it will lead you to the underground river. It flows downstream toward the lava flats." The Armorer glanced at him and then went back to what she was doing.

Paz knew the tunnel she was talking about. Since the Tribe had taken over the tunnels the river wasn't used for much. The heat did keep them warm even on the worst of cold nights for the surface.

The Guild man put his hands on his hips. "I think we should go."

Din stepped past the child towards the Armorer. "I'm staying. I need to help her and I need to heal."

The Armorer gathered up her work from the workbench and turned towards Din. "You must go. A Foundling is in your care. By Creed, until it is of age or reunited with its own kind, you are as its father."

Din's Foundling cooed.

"This is the Way." The Armorer moved from her workbench towards Din. "You have earned your Signet." She stepped up to Din's shoulder and placed the Signet. "You are a clan of two."

"Thank you. I will wear this with honor."

There was a series of muffled explosions in the distance.

The Guild man shifted on his feet. "We should go."

Kaleine when up on her tip-toes to look at Din's new Signet. "It sounds like a standard breach formation. Two fire teams, followed by another two minutes later."

"IG, please guard the outer hallway. A scouting party draws near." The Armorer gestured for Paz to refill his munitions.

****

Cara wanted to have been gone ages ago now. Her eye caught on Din's shiny mudhorn Signet. She'd need to remember to tell him she liked the look of it. She knew he was proud to have earned it.

IG-11 handed her the kid as Cara tried to adjust her hold so she wouldn't jostle him. "Hang on. I don't do the baby thing." Not that she hadn't, not that she couldn't if she needed to, but...the little guy cooed. He peered over the edge of the carry bag and squealed happily when he saw her. Yeah, they'd figure it out.

Two of the Stormtrooper armored children followed IG out into the tunnels.

The Armorer moved across the Forge to a different table. "I have one more gift for your journey. Have you trained in the Rising Phoenix?"

"When I was a boy. Yes."

"Then this will make you complete."

Cara wondered which was more important to Din, the mudhorn emblem or the jetpack.

"Thank you." He sounded a little stunned around the edges as he stared at the gift.

"When you have healed, you will begin your drills. Until you know it, it will not listen to your commands."

"I understand."

Cara wiped around as the sound of blasters echoed down the hallway. The rest of the kid Troopers readied weapons, but the one with her helmet off didn't bother to put it back on.

They waited several tense moments until IG-11 appeared in the entryway and told them they were protected.

The Armorer carried the jetpack with her as she moved across the Forge towards IG-11. "More will come, you must go."

Din followed her. "Come with us."

"My place is here. Restock your munitions." The Armorer held the jetpack out towards the droid. "IG, carry this for Din Djarin until he is well enough to wear it." She stepped back as the droid took the jetpack from her. "Now go. Down to the river and across the plains."

Karga and the little Troopers started out the doorway. Cara adjusted the straps on the kid's carry bag so she could still use her weapon if she needed to and started to follow.

****

Paz waited for the crush of kids and Din's group to get out of Forge. Kaleine flicked hand signals at a couple of her people and they peeled the other direction from the river tunnel. "Kaleine."

She grinned at him. "They are just counting numbers. No shooting." She turned towards the Armorer. "Do you count as your people's Princess General?"

The Armorer cocked her head and then looked at him. "I don't know what that means."

Din looked up from where he was quickly gathering munitions. "Is that a New Republic rank of some sort?"

Kaleine watched the Armorer put another part into the Forge. "She is the heart of the Resistance. And the Rebellion, for a while at least."

Paz nudged Kaleine. "We need to go, Kaleine."

Din came from the munitions table and handed him several explosives. Paz absently put them away as Kaleine and the Armorer stared at each other.

"You are _jetii_."

"Sort of?" Kaleine tucked her helmet under her arm. "We aren't your enemies and the dead Jedi masters that stay on our base say that Mandalorians sided with Sith and that's why the Jedi fought them. I think no one actually knows because the reports got destroyed so all that's left are the stories and those distort through retellings."

"If you go now I will agree to make armor for your platoon. We will negotiate fees and amounts of alloys needed at another time."

Kaleine smiled and put her helmet on. "We're going." She touched the Armorer's elbow. "May the Force be with you."

The Armorer herded them out of the Forge. "Be safe on your journey."

Paz hurried to catch them up to the rest, but at the next junction stood three of Kaleine's group. "What's wrong?"

"Kaleine, we can't leave her. She's important to them."

Din tilted his head. "She said to go, so we need to go."

Kaleine stretched up to pat Din on his Signet. "Don't worry. We're going." 

Paz felt cold sweep down his spine. "Kaleine."

She nodded once to the others and suddenly a stream of armor pieces from the tunnels shot past them down the long tunnel.

Paz ducked as Din did. It didn't take long for the armor to quit zipping past. The kids turned and started down the tunnel. Paz shrugged when Din looked at him, because, really what could he say? The kids did what they wanted and if everyone was lucky it would correspond with what the adults wanted.

_It isn't my fault that Mandalorians are more stubborn then even Princess General._

****

The Armorer watched the armor parts stream away and huffed. Obviously the child thought that if there was no more to salvage than she was free to follow. It was...admirable. She moved to the now clear entryway and knelt down with her best hammer and tongs.

The next scouting party wasn't far and they arrived in a clatter of plastoid armor. It was so much louder on these few men than it had been on all the small Foundling Troopers. 

She pushed down her irritation at the head nudge and went to work. They were no match for her and even the one she feed to the Forge wouldn't have been a severe threat.

"Ooooh. That's why you thought my helmet should have shattered."

She turned her head from looking at her downed opponent to looking at Kaleine, floating in the middle of the entryway. "I told you to go."

"I did. And then I came back." She gestured to the Forge. "Do you have to do special things to dismantle it?"

"You took the remaining armor."

"Yes. It can be melted anywhere. It was spares and decoys you'd made. It wasn't from any fallen Mandalorians."

"How is it you know this?"

"Paz knew." She floated over to one of the dead and nudged the shattered helmet. "You are important and it lowers their efficiency to worry about you." She looked up. "Also, I don't want to lose you now that you've agreed to make us armor."

The Armorer sighed. "Very well. Help me."

****

Paz watched Cara shoot the barge free of the hardened lava with a growing feeling of pride. "I'm really starting to like her."

Din hit him on the arm and Paz didn't retaliate as they all piled onto the barge. The kids somehow seemed to take up less space than they should.

Paz frowned and recounted them. "We're missing a kid." He tried to pinpoint Kaleine in the mess of them. "Where's Kaleine?"

Noilo pulled his helmet off. "She's coming."

Paz gestured at the barge. "How?"

Noilo made a face at him just as noise from the back of the barge made Paz, Din, and Cara turn around and pull weapons.

The barge droid that broke itself out of the lava rock beeped at them. IG-11 translated and they were soon being poled down the lava river by the droid as it whistled a tune.

Paz watched restlessly back they way they'd come. He couldn't do anything from here if Kaleine found herself in more trouble than she could handle.

"Shit."

Paz turned back towards the tunnel entrance they were drifting towards. He could just make out Stormtroopers. 

Cara went to the barge droid and told it to stop. The droid just kept beeping its tune. She started to bring her blaster up to shoot it, but the nearest of Kaleine's Troopers slipped between them.

"Easy." The kid pried the pole from the droid as easy as you please. "It doesn't know how to stop in the middle."

The droid just kept moving its arms as though the pole were still there.

IG-11 came to Paz and handed him Din's Rising Phoenix and said he'd go self-destruct to clear their escape.

The argument between Din and the droid about the droid sacrificing itself to save them was cut short as Noilo and three others of the kids leapt up to the ceiling of the tunnel. They started walking along it like it was the ground.

"What are you doing?"

Noilo waved at them. "Be quiet and let us work."

Cara moved towards the front of the barge. "They'll kill you."

"We're very good at what we do. We'll be fine."

Paz handed IG-11 back Din's Rising Phoenix and patted Cara on the shoulder. "Trust me. There's no stopping them."

"They are _children_."

Paz grimaced. "Not the way you'd like to think they are."

****

Din helplessly watched four Foundlings purposefully walk on the ceiling of the tunnel towards Stormtroopers that would cut them down without a care. He had no way to help until they drifted closer, but it felt like the barge had slowed down.

Suddenly, the ceiling walkers were...gone? Din frowned and did a quick count of the ones still on the barge. "What happened to them?"

The Stormtroopers suddenly broke and ran from the tunnel mouth, screaming and failing arms like it was the end of their world.

Din turned and stared at Paz who was looking towards the mouth of the tunnel. The barge definitely sped up. "Paz."

Paz shrugged. "I don't know what they did." He turned to one of the children. "You're Koja, right?"

"Yes." The child pulled her helmet off and looked up at them. "Did you know _everyone_ is afraid of rathtars?"

Din looked back towards the mouth of the tunnel and there on the ceiling where the four Troopers upside down, two watching one side and two watching the other side, as the Stormtrooper faded into the distance. "How long will it last?"

Koja shrugged. "Probably about a day. We didn't bond it to their brains or anything, so it shouldn't hurt them in the long run."

Din looked from Koja to his little womp rat watching everything with wide eyes. He really hoped these _jetii_ continued to not be their enemies and also that the kid didn't pick up powers from them.

Koja patted his arm. "That's not how the Force works."

****

Din shouldn't have been surprised by Gideon showing up in his TIE, but well, it had been a day already and really he just wanted to eat and rest.

The strafing runs were going to kill them no matter how many hits the children were getting with their weapons.

"I have an idea." It was a bad idea, but, well, it had been that kind of a day. He took the Rising Phoenix from IG-11 and set it in place.

Paz shook his head and looked from the TIE to him. "You are insane."

Din grinned and lifted off. He caught hold of the TIE with his whipcord and pulled himself in. Losing his first explosive charges to the TIE sudden banking maneuver was annoying, but the second stuck on the strut and Din let go to fall out of range of the blast.

Landing was a little shaky, but it had been years since he'd drilled and Din was pretty sure his balance was still off. Paz and the others met him on the ground as Gideon's TIE spiraled down to crash in the distance.

****


	10. Forge in the Sands

****

Cara refrained from grabbing Din as he landed with a tiny stumble. She handed the baby right over as soon as Din's hands started to reach for him. She kept her hands under his, bracing as his one arm didn't hold the kid's weight. "Easy. I've got you."

Din made a tiny sound and shuffled closer to her.

The big Mandalorian moved into their huddle and put his hands under hers. "Let her take him back, Din. _Sha'kaji_ , alright?"

Din nodded and then just sagged against them.

"Whoa." Cara got her hip in against Din's thigh and pushed him more against the other Mandalorian as she settled the kid back in his carry bag. "We've got you." She turned her head towards the other man. "What the hell did you say to get him to stand down so fast?"

"I told him to cease fire." He lowered Din to sit, legs sprawled, on the ground. "Rest for a couple of minutes."

Din hummed and leaned his helmet against Cara's leg. "Need to go, Paz."

Cara felt a shift as all the armored kids turned their heads in unison the direction the TIE had gone down in.

"That's...different." Koja turned her little head towards one of the others. "Noilo, should a saber sound like that?"

The other kid shrugged. "Don't know. It isn't screaming, just sounds...different."

Cara touched the top of the nearest kid's shoulder. "Is different coming this way?"

The kids started moving around them. "No, but we should go now. Before it does come this way."

Cara nodded. That was a plan she could get behind.

They split from Karga as he said he was going to stay now that the Imperials were scattered. Cara rolled her eyes a little at that. They'd be back and if Din could stand she'd stay to keep the place clear, but...Din needed help. She didn't know if the other Mandalorian or IG-11 would stay with him.

She turned her head at the sound of beeping. The kids were bringing along the ferry droid. "What are you doing?"

The closest kid turned their helmet towards her. "The ferry isn't used and the droid deserves to have a job that won't get it killed just because it can't stop in the middle."

Cara felt a pang of guilt. She had intended to kill the droid if it didn't listen to her. The fear of it floating them to their deaths had pushed her to be more rash than she normally would have been.

****

Paz thought they made an odd looking group. Tiny not-Stormtroopers, a mismatched pair of droids, a floating pile of armor, a Rebel Shock Trooper, and a couple of Mandalorians out for a stroll through the lava fields.

It wasn't a relaxing walk. He was still worrying about Kaleine and what she'd split from them to do. Din was stumbling or listing to his right every few steps.

He guided Din around a boulder and blinked at their ships as they came into view. There was a armored figure standing on the ramp of Paz's ship. Huh. He was going to have to try to get Kaleine to tell him how she got the Armorer to change her mind.

As they approached, Paz could make out two sniper's nests that wouldn't be noticeable unless you already knew the shapes of the ships. Just as he wondered where the other three of Kaleine's people were the ramp to Din's ship started to lower.

The Armorer came forward. "Quickly, into the ships. Kaleine says the Moff is not deceased."

Din stumbled against Paz's side. "Dammit."

"That is on the prohibited words list, you know." Kaleine appeared at the Armorer's side.

Paz shifted Din to lean on Cara and grabbed up Kaleine into a hug. "Are you alright, _verd'ika_?"

"Yes, I'm fine." She patted his back between armor plates. "Huh, you do the unfavorable firing positions too? I thought it was only Princess General's people that used them." Kaleine leaned into the hug.

Paz adjusted his hold on her so she was riding on his hip and took her towards his ship as everyone else scrambled to get loaded. "Foundlings all alright?"

"Yes. The Armorer was pleased with your defense once she got a look at the damage."

He ignored that the Armorer was three kids behind him and counted his normal Foundlings and then started counting Kaleine's people. "Where's the rest of you?"

"Ten are in Din's ship. We need to find a planet we can stay on for a while so I can get us to Scarif."

"Scarif?" The Armorer maneuvered around kids to get closer to Paz as he set Kaleine down at the cockpit's entrance.

"They have a mission they've given themselves." Paz ignored the Armorer staring at him to get the ship into the air. "Kaleine could you tell someone on Din's ship we are headed for Tatooine?"

"Sure."

"Kaleine, out of the cockpit, please."

Kaleine patted Paz's vambrace like she knew he was about to be chewed out and left him with the Armorer. The cockpit hatch closing behind her seemed very final.

The Armorer sat in the copliot's seat and they watched the stars streak by for several minutes.

"They are children going to a battle."

Paz swallowed. That hadn't been a question or a statement, but something in-between the two. "They will do whatever they please, I think."

"Hmmm." She folded her hands in her lap. "Din appeared to be in worse condition when you arrived at the ships."

Same tone. Paz wasn't sure what to make of this conversation. It was as though she was worried about more than the usual. "He took down the Moff's TIE fighter with some of the explosives you prepared for us. I suspect they are wrapping his shoulder to be immobile unless the _jetii_ children heal him."

"Hmmm." The Armorer turned to watch the side of Paz's head. "You think these children should go by themselves to Scarif?"

Paz snorted. "No." He shook his head and heaved a sigh. "I think they shouldn't be in armor. That they should just be children, but that ship has blown up for them."

"It has." The Armorer turned back to watching the stars slide past. "Kaleine told me the present locations of everyone of our Tribe."

Paz blinked and forced himself not to clutch the controls. "How many survive?"

"All." She paused and looked down at her hands before lifting her head again. "There isn't enough beskar in the Tribe's possession to armor all of her group."

All were alive. _All!_ Paz grinned wide. "We'll show her beskar and let her find more."

"She insists they must go on their mission before receiving new armor."

"Hmmm." Paz suddenly felt like he needed all the drinks again. This is what was worrying the Armorer, that the children were going to go into a battle with their Stormtrooper plastiod armor. "Trust me that they don't get hit with unless they want to be."

"Kaleine said you dropped into battle with them."

Paz nodded and flicked an unnecessary switch to give himself something to do with his hands. "They couldn't be talked out of it so I thought the best I could do was makes sure the Foundlings were safe on Din's ship and attempt to protect Kaleine's group as best I could."

"They are Foundlings under your care, Paz Vizla, and they are preparing to go into battle."

Paz bit his tongue so he wouldn't say to her that the children were very good at what they did. He thought she might cuff him upside the head if he did and it'd be justified. He poked another button on the controls. "Do you have a suggestion for how to stop them?"

The Armorer snorted. "No." She reached out and put her hand on the nape of his neck, just below the helmet. "You and Din will guard them as best you are able. This will be the price of their armor."

He blinked. "Din's Foundling? My other Foundlings? What will be done with them?"

Her hand on his neck tightened. "You think I am not capable of protecting Foundlings?"

He blew out a breath. "Oh. Of course." He turned his head towards her against the hold she had on his neck. "You should make sure to tell Din he didn't cause a massacre of our people as you implied today."

She let go of him and folded her hands back into her lap. "He should have understood the ruse."

"He'd had an E-Web blown up next to him less than an hour prior."

She whipped her head sharply towards him. "He..." She slowly turned back as her voice trailed off. "That explains much."

"Hmmm."

"You will both still accompany the armored Foundlings to their battle."

Paz nodded. "Perhaps we should enlist the aid of the Shock Trooper. She respects the Creed and cares for Din."

"Hmmm."

****

Cara patted Kuiil on the arm and pushed to get Din sitting down. "Someone else can pilot. Sit, Din."

Kuiil blinked at her from where he lay on a pallet of blankets. His blurrg was in her makeshift pen behind him. "Is he injured severely?"

"Not so much now." Cara unstrapped the kid's carry bag and set him down next to Din. She watched from the corner of her eye as several of the little Stormtrooper children started stripping down their weapons to clean.

Din lurched with the ship as it took off. "I need to pilot."

One of the children patted him on the arm. "You should rest."

Din flopped onto his back. "Rest." His head lolled to one side.

"Shit." Cara started to reach for him, but the children moved to stop her.

"He is alright. He'll be healed by the time we get to Tatooine." The child pulled their helmet off. "I'm Kaarl."

"Get to Tatooine?"

Kaarl shrugged. "Paz's ship needs a lot of repairs and there is an abandoned house that no one will have dared to move into yet that we can use."

Cara decided to ignore that as the little womp rat of Din's waddled over to Kuiil and cooed. "He's alright, kid. Don't go doing the healing thing, okay?"

The kid turned his big ears down and then flicked them up as he glanced from her to Kuill and back again.

Kuill closed his hand over the kid's claws. "I will be well, small one." He sighed and curled on his side towards the boy. "You were very brave today. I have spoken."

That got another coo. Cara settled down between Kuill and Din and accepted the blanket Kaarl held out to her. She spread it over Din carefully and listened to his faint snores.

****

Peli was pulling a hull panel to reach a compressor that needed replacing on a smuggler's ship when two passing ships in tight formation caught her eye. She prided herself on being able to recognize ships she'd handled even if they looked liked they'd been through a ship fight bad enough that they shouldn't be able to fly.

That old Imp ship was flying smooth enough, but there was hull damage visible. The Razor Crest looked in the same shape as when she'd let it go. Peli watched the Mandalorians' ships fly past the port, curving off towards the lowland moisture farms.

She climbed down and tossed the panel she's pulled to one of the droids. "I'm going out for a bit. Finish the compressor replacement for me."

Grabbing her good googles, Peli didn't pay the droid's complaints any attention as she headed around to the corner of the hanger and pulled her speeder from its storage bay. 

"What am I doing anyway?" She huffed at herself and set off. The droids would get the current job done before Han managed to get payment scrounged together. That boy was always broke.

Following the ships wasn't hard. There was little out this way that a ship would get so low down for in close to town, but not actually go to town, other than the moisture farms.

Peli was careful to slow as she came up on the last rise before the old moisture farm. It had been burnt out years before and no one had taken over since. She didn't want to startle battle wary Mandos if she didn't have to.

She jerked the speeder to a stop as the shortest Stormtrooper she'd ever seen blocked her way, weapon at the ready. A tiny blaster sized to the tiny Trooper. "Gonna shoot me, are you?'

The little helmet tilted to one side. "Do you _want_ me to shoot you?"

Peli blinked at the sound of a child's voice coming from that helmet. "You're a kid. A kid!" She sat up straighter on her speeder and watched as more of them appeared over the crest of the hill.

"We aren't kids. We're just under-height." 

Peli waved her hand at them. "What foolish thinking are you doing to be standing out here in this heat in that horrid plastoid armor? Heat used to kill a Trooper a day back when the Imperials had numbers so vast they didn't care."

"Stormtroopers die. That's what they do."

"Peli."

Peli turned her head to find her blue armored Mando standing to one side with another four of these little armored kids. "You dishonorable coward!" She scrambled off her speeder and threw her goggles at him. "I will tear that helmet right off your head..."

She squeaked as she lifted off the ground with no jetpack to support her. "What?" She failed her limbs as Mando sighed and picked up her goggles from near his feet.

"Kaleine, put her down gently. She thinks you are my Foundlings."

One of the little armored kids cocked their head and Peli's toes touched the sand.

"I thought we are yours and Din's Foundlings?"

Mando sighed again, harder than the last time and held her goggles out to her. "Yes, but when I met Peli I just had my Foundlings that aren't your platoon. She appears to think I forced you into armor."

"Oh." The girl pulled her little helmet off and grinned at Peli. "We were First Order long before we met Paz or Din. And we only stopped on our way to our mission because he and his other Foundlings needed help."

Peli eyed Mando. "Help?"

He shrugged. "Might have had to try to hold the ship against an Interceptor crew."

"Oh, is that why it looked like shit? I haven't gotten anymore blue paint you know." Peli yanked her googles out of his hand and smacked him on the arm with them. "What the Maker?"

He waved at the kids. "Go on in. I'll get the rest of the perimeter set."

"Yell if you need rescue." 

Peli blinked and started to ask why they thought Mando would need rescued except they were...gone. "Where?" She turned around in a circle looking for them, but they were just gone. No prints in the sand, no noise, no nothing. She whipped back around and grabbed Mando's arm so he didn't disappear too. "Explain."

"I ended up with more Foundlings after I left your hangar. They say they are from the future and they are headed to a battle in the past." Mando sighed and squatted down where he stood. "They claim to be originally from a faction of the Empire that will call itself the First Order. They defected to a faction allied with the New Republic."

Peli could feel a how-is-this-my-life headache starting up behind one eye. "You just letting them go to battle?"

Mando sighed heavily and went to lean against her scooter. "If you figure out a way to stop them, slow them down even, you be sure to tell me."

Peli hummed as she considered the disappearing thing. "You're going to go with them, right?"

Mando tilted his head down towards her. "That wasn't really a question, was it?"

Peli smiled and smacked Mando in the chest plate with her googles. "You're a Mandalorian, of course it wasn't a question." She waved her hand at him. "Perimeter?"

He pushed himself upright from her speeder and turned to guide it forward. "They set the rest while we were talking. Let's go in. Please be polite."

Peli patted him the back as she followed. "Do tell me when I haven't been polite. I want to hear where my manners have flaws." She smiled to herself as he huffed and puffed about his wording as they descended the dune.

****


	11. Message in a Tin Can

****

Jyn Erso leaned back in her seat beside the Guardians after they made it into hyperspace. She wasn't sure if Cassian's little speech in the Rebel hangar had been inspiring or depressing. Maybe it was both. Chirrut put his hand on her shoulder, which didn't really make her feel any better. It wasn't like they all didn't know that they were going to die.

After all, the chances that any of them manage to survive this mission were slim to none. She mentally snorted as she thought about asking K-2SO the odds. It'd probably make the droid happy to tell her how he calculated she would die.

The Pathfinders settled in around them, checking weapons, attempting to sleep, even gossiping quietly amongst themselves.

Jyn patted Chirrut's hand on her shoulder. She would miss them, for all that she hadn't known them very long, the Guardians' presence was peaceful in a way that reminded Jyn of her mother.

Suddenly, the shuttle jerked. Jyn braced and took a sharp breath. Normally ships didn't jerk in hyperspace unless everyone was about to die horribly. She barely had time for that thought before there were tiny Stormtroopers all over the floor.

Baze's heavy repeater whirred to the ready as a tangle of three adults appeared between the little Stormtroopers and them.

Jyn gaped at the two Mandalorians sprawled on the floor as the woman sitting mostly on top of them held out her empty hands towards Baze.

"Kindly don't shoot us." She groaned and leaned her head back against the Mando underneath her. "That was horrible. I think I might throw up."

Chirrut straightened up and cocked his head. "Lightsabers. They have lightsabers."

Baze lowered his weapon minutely and turned his head to stare at Chirrut. "What?"

One of the little Stormtroopers pulled their helmet off and revealed a little dark skinned boy. "Of course we have our lightsabers. They are _our_ lightsabers."

The woman groaned and turned her head towards the boy. "Noilo, no antagonizing Rogue One."

Jyn blinked and stared across this mess at Cassian. They'd just picked their name. It couldn't have gotten around the Rebel base that fast, could it have?

"I'm not antagonizing." The boy frowned and stood up, pulling a small blaster around to his front. "What's antagonizing mean?"

The woman groaned and used Chirrut's knee to brace herself as she sat straighter up. "Sorry about all this."

Jyn shook her head. "What the kriff is going on?"

"You have a Rebel tattoo." Cassian was staring at the woman like he'd been hit with a stun bolt.

The woman's eyebrows rose. "Yes? I was a Rebel Shock Trooper. Well, will be..." She turned towards Noilo. "I hate time travel."

The boy grinned at her. "You didn't have to come."

"What and leave the Mandos trying to run herd on you all? Not a chance." The woman held out her hand towards Jyn. "I'm Cara, Sergeant Erso."

Jyn blinked several times before scowling. "I'm not a Sergeant."

Cara grinned. "Well, I suppose they don't officially give you the rank until you are dead." She took her hand back and poked the Mando she'd been mostly sprawled across. "We good?"

"No. My count says we're missing one." He titled his helmet towards the other Mando. "Yours?"

The Mandalorian in the blue painted armor shook their head. "Same."

Cara put her face in her hand. "Of course, we're missing someone."

The boy Noilo smiled at Jyn, his little white teeth showing. "We aren't missing anyone. We're just waiting."

Cara lifted her head and glared at Noilo. "Waiting? Waiting on what?"

The boy shrugged and pointed at Jyn's kyber crystal. "The kyber crystal asked for help. Kaleine is helping."

Jyn wrapped her hand around her mother's crystal. "I didn't think the crystals talked."

Chirrut lifted his chin. "You can hear the crystal, boy?"

Noilo shrugged. "Yes, but it isn't talking like people talk. It is...more images?"

Jyn looked at Cassian counting their unexpected guests. "What are we going to do?"

Cassian shook his head looking stricken. "We can't abort now."

The tiny helmets of the children suddenly all turned as one to look towards the sidewall of the shuttle.

Noilo frowned and scooted closer to the shinier of the Mandos. "I didn't think Vader would be so loud."

One of the other children yanked their helmet off to reveal a little girl with brown hair braided back out of her small face. "Kaleine might be right. He just skipped Dagobah."

"Hmm."

Chirrut sucked in a sharp breath. "What did you just do?"

Noilo tilted his head back to look up at Chirrut. "Can you still sense properly? We can shift the shield if it messes with you."

Chirrut grabbed Baze's elbow and shook it slightly. "The Force is with us." His whole body spoke of awe even more than his tone of voice.

Baze grumbled under his breath and lowered his blaster to his knees. "They are _children_."

Jyn pressed her head back into the seat behind her. She'd seen some odd things in her life, but this just might win out.

****

Cassian wasn't sure of anything at the moment. People appearing spontaneously during a hyperspace jump was something he'd never heard happening before. 

The armor on the children was close to Stormtrooper standard and the blasters looked even more so for all their small size. The apparent lack of fear at facing a charged heavy repeating blaster made Cassian hold himself still and watch for the first few minutes as Jyn looked stunned around the edges.

He counted the group again after the Mandos said they were missing someone. He came up with two Mandos, the Rebel Trooper woman, and 19 armored kids. Armed kids.

He crouched down and tapped the nearest one on their shoulder. "How old are you?"

The little armored shoulders shrugged. "We go by height, but the New Republic goes by age, but we're aren't sure and the Princess General's attempts to get a working genetic scanner haven't been going well."

Cassian pulled back. "New Republic?"

Several of the nearest children nodded.

Cassian looked across them to the Rebel woman, who grinned.

"Yeah. We win in the end."

The blue armored Mando huffed. "I think that's debatable."

"I don't see where your people blew up two Death Stars and collapsed the Empire, do I?"

Cassian could feel a panic attack gathering. "Two? Two Death Stars?"

The nearest of the children patted him on the back of his arm and the panic was gone like it had never happened. "Only one right now. The other doesn't happen for a couple of years."

One of the other children nodded. "And the one gets blown up next week at the Battle of Yavin, anyway. Master Luke said it was a Force driven miracle shot."

Cassian looked at Jyn frowning down at the children. "Next week?"

Noilo shrugged. "It takes Princess General a little while to get back to Yavin after the battle today."

He wanted to ask who exactly the boy was talking about when there were suddenly three more people in their overcrowded shuttle.

Two women and another of the little Stormtroopers.

"Ooooh, I'm not doing that again." The kid sounded female and patted herself down as the woman on one side of her slumped over and moaned.

The woman on the other side was soaked to the bone and holding her own chest. "The Maker?" She heaved a breath and turned to stare at the new kid. "How!? How did you do that? That bolt..." She patted her chest and went up onto her knees. "You put that bolt _through_ me."

The newest kid pulled her helmet off and Cassian stared at the curls on the little girl's head. "Yes. I couldn't just stop it in front of you. The Death Troopers or Stormtroopers would have seen. Putting it into the ground was easier."

The woman patted her chest again. "Without hurting me. Just...through me."

The kid narrowed her eyes. "Yes? Was that wrong somehow?"

Jyn made a strangled noise and leaned towards the woman. "Momma."

Cassian stood and tried to decide if Jyn needed him closer or if...

Lyra Erso turned her head and stared unblinkingly at the crystal that hung from Jyn's neck. "The future she said, but..." She brought her hands up to cover her mouth as she looked Jyn up and down. "Oh! You got so big, Jyn."

The kid beside Lyra sighed and turned towards Noilo. "We on time?"

Noilo huffed. "Yes, Kaleine." He waved a hand at the deck. "We're going to need to unload the supplies in the lower hold if we are going to save what we can reach of Blue Squadron. We'll need the space. And what are you going to do about her?" He pointed at the slumped over woman.

Kaleine pushed on the woman's shoulder in an assessing sort of manner. "She's going to need some rest. We'll just fold the Force around the shuttle. He can't sense her through enough folds."

Cassian traded looks with Jyn. He leaned down and caught the girl's armored elbow. "He? Who are you talking about?"

****

Baze ignored the tingling in his fingers. He ignored the creeping feeling of sereneness, of complete peace, that he usually only got from Chirrut after his prayers were completed. He watched the tiny Force user yawn and accept a ration bar from the blue armored Mando.

"He means Darth Vader." She took a huge bite of rations. "It'll be fine. He is late to the battle today anyway."

"Don't talk with your mouth full! It's almost the only Resistance rule." The Stormtrooper child that said this was lost in the crowd of the tiny beings.

Kaleine sighed through her nose and closed her mouth to chew.

Baze watched Cassian thinking, counting the children up, and thinking some more. They were stuck. These children, armed and armored though they might be, were going to Scarf with them.

There was nowhere to drop them off. No _time_ to do so either.

Without moving his body, Baze focused on thinking through how to incapacitate the lead child. Four heads turned towards him as the girl swallowed her food.

"That's not nice. We've come to give you a chance to live."

Baze put his heavy blaster to the side and leaned forward with his forearms on top of his knees. "You've come to save us?" He waved a hand at the Pathfinders, some of whom were even awake to see this mess.

Kaleine grinned. "You're non-retrieve-able bodies because the Death Star blows a hole in Scarf after you transmit out the plans to the Rebel Fleet. There's nothing to say you have to _be_ the bodies that can't be retrieved."

Chirrut snorted. He turned his blind gaze towards Baze and smiled. "The Force is with us."

Baze ignored the feeling of peace that was trying to worm its way into his chest. Then he ignored it even harder. "You are children."

Kaleine sighed and took another bite of food. 

Noilo rolled his eyes and handed Jyn's mother a dry cloth. "We are very good at what we do."

Baze snorted and leaned back as Cassian shook his head.

****

"We can't ask you to fight." Cassian was trying to place where he'd seen the slumped woman before as Lyra wiped the moisture from her face and hands. Trying to talk these child soldiers out of fighting would buy him some time to think.

Noilo turned his head to look at the blue armored Mando. "Will you please tell them?"

The broad armored shoulders shrugged as the Mando gently pulled the boy in against his side with a pat on his upper back. "Just because I've seen your platoon go against a company of Stormtroopers and come out without a scorch mark doesn't mean they'll believe me that you have done so."

Noilo frowned. "Oh, no. I meant the Stormtroopers from the tunnel entrance. The ones that we used the rathtar trick on."

Cassian mouthed 'rathtar trick' in Jyn's general direction as the vaguely familiar woman suddenly sat up.

"Ooooh." She clutched at her abdomen before twisting to stare at Kaleine. "Really?"

Kaleine shrugged and swallowed before saying, "You might need to run during the battle. Your body was complaining because of the Force drain on you. I just stopped that. It might have backlashed on Master Anakin." She frowned and turned to look at the same sidewall the children had collectively looked at before. "He's not happy right now."

The woman patted her abdomen again. "You didn't just stop a Force drain." She glanced at the wall Kaleine was still looking at. "You didn't say much before you took me. Are you a Jedi or a padawan?"

Kaleine blinked and looked at the Guardians. "Sometimes I get called those, but I'm not like what you mean when you say them." She turned and smiled at Cassian. "We are going to battle today, would you like to join us?"

Cassian could feel a headache gathering. "Who says you are going to battle today?"

Kaleine finished her ration bar. "We do." She nodded to one of the other children. "Kennagen, go insert the locator chip into K-2SO. Kanamar, help Lady Erso's clothes to dry off. Noilo and I will go over the battle timeline with Sergeant Erso and Commander Cassian. Everyone else start blaster-proofing the Pathfinders."

Cassian didn't know what to address first. The wrong ranks, the locator chip, or the blaster-proofing comment.

Jyn leaned down to bring her eyes level with Kaleine's. "I'm not a Sergeant."

Kaleine frowned. "The memorial wall says you are. The Battle of Scarif takes up three panels. Two of the panels are about Rogue One and your Pathfinders. The other is about the Rebel fleet members."

Jyn drew a deep breath and looked at him like she didn't know what to say to all of this either.

****

Din let the conversations wash back and forth as he tried to work out just how he felt. The child not being with them was...disconcerting. His little womp rat was safe with the Armorer and Peli. He knew that. He just felt...hollow? Yes, that was the feeling. Like how Paz described feeling when his Armored Foundlings had let go of their battle focus. 

Din recounted helmets as the lead child, Kaleine, reappeared with more adults in tow. He tried not to think about where his hollow feeling came from. They hadn't folded him into their battle focus and the strange thoughts he'd dismissed as caused by his head wound didn't bear thinking about.

He really hoped they couldn't pass any _jetii_ things onto his child. The flame pushing, the invisible choking, and the healing was going to be enough to deal with over time.

Din double checked his explosives count as he'd seen one of the children eying them. The new adult that was in soaked clothing kept glancing at what was evidently her adult daughter. From what little Cara had known to be able to tell him about the Erso family the daughter had been little older than him when she lost the mother and her father had been taken by the Empire.

Kaleine's troopers started moving more as she gave assignments and Din folded in his legs to try to give them more room to move about. The crowding was worse than having three blurrgs in his ship's hold.

Din felt more at peace as he scooted closer to the red clothed Guardian that had spoken about the _jetii_ 's mysterious Force. Cara crowded him so he couldn't move away from this newest source of sorcery. He was going to drag Paz and Cara to the nearest bar when this was over.

****


	12. The Battle of Scarif

****

K-2SO stared at the small being brandishing what appeared to be a locator chip at him. The armor was Stormtrooper-like, the size denoted a child, and the expression was a match for Cassian at his most stubborn. He flickered his optics as a distraction to give himself more processing cycles to think.

Was this the reason for the sudden talking from the hold? He'd been ignoring it and watching Rook become more tense the more the talking went on. K-2 turned his head to lay his optics on Rook staring at the Stormtrooper child with an expression Cassian had always termed horror.

K-2 turned back and stood up to better intimidate the small organic being still holding out that chip. "I know my location. I do not need such a chip."

The child kept swishing the chip back and forth through the space between them. "Kaleine says you get a chip, so you get a chip."

He was tempted to say he didn't know anyone named Kaleine, but Cassian appeared in the doorway.

"K-2."

K-2 turned his optics from the child to Cassian. "When did we recruit children for this suicide mission?"

Cassian sighed. "K-2, we didn't recruit them." He took the chip from the child and examined it. "Why a locator chip?"

The child crossed his small arms. "He's a droid. Kaleine doesn't want to test if a droid will go through the time-slipping. Then there'll be the astromech droids from Blue Squadron too. The chip is tuned for New Republic coding that won't go into effect until 34 ABY."

K-2 looked at Cassian for an explication.

He grimaced and held out the chip. "Install the chip, K-2."

K-2 took the chip and looked down at it for several more processing cycles before he sighed. Cassian would only argue if he refused to comply. K-2 didn't want to deal with a petulant Cassian today. "Very well."

The chip had properly sized connections. K-2 slipped it in an empty slot and let his optics flicker as he unpacked a binary message that could only be from R2-D2 given the amount of expletives in the header.

K-2 processed the message, the data, and then patted the child gently on his small head. "Mission accepted."

The boy smiled wide and slipped past a stunned looking Cassian to go back to the hold.

Cassian curled his hand around K-2's forearm. "K-2?"

"They are New Republic affiliated, which appears to be the successor of the Rebellion. We will allow them to help us, Cassian."

Cassian frowned and blinked a few times. "You're certain you are alright?"

K-2 considered the children's' battle plan, the plans to a Death Star that technically came from the first time they'd done this which resulted in everyone dying, the reports that stated they had died, and Cassian's worry. "I am functioning adequately."

Cassian huffed. "Alright."

"Was that a Stormtrooper?"

K-2 turned his head to consider Rook and his bloodless expression. "That was a child." He turned back to Cassian. "We are unable to abort. There is a mission to complete."

Cassian nodded. He patted K-2's arm. "We'll be okay."

K-2 hated when Cassian lied to him in an attempt to make himself feel better. "There is a 92.4% chance you die today."

Cassian grinned and turned to go back to the hold. "That's better than what you told me this morning."

K-2 flickered his optics and considered the data he now possessed. Years in low-power mode waiting to be picked up if he wasn't rendered to scrap during the battle. An end with Cassian in a position to sleep a proper amount of time each day without the prospect of being killed if K-2 was also in a charge cycle.

Rook shifted beside him. "I'm the pilot."

"You are the pilot." K-2 took his seat again and calculated their chances of survival much improved. Jyn Erso's chances were even improved. If K-2 considered himself to like anyone besides Cassian he'd like these under-height children that looked like Stormtroopers.

****

The tense moment of Gate Control deciding if their code was good seemed to stretch forever. Jyn clutched her kyber crystal and tried to ignore the tingly feeling from the children supposedly blaster proofing her.

"You are cleared for landing pad 9."

Jyn lifted her eyebrows at Cassian as he bit his lip. The children had been right about the assigned pad. It didn't exactly make her feel better about this whole thing. 

Jyn climbed down from the cockpit to find everyone was looking right at her. Even Cassian after he followed her down. _Well, okay. It isn't like any of us know what to say here._

She straightened up and dropped her hands to her sides. "Saw Gerrera used to say one fighter with a sharp stick and nothing left to lose can take the day." She looked over the children already standing ready to go. "They've no idea we're coming. They've no reason to expect us."

The Pathfinders started lifting their chins and straightening their backs.

Jyn nodded a bit as she continued, "If we can make to the ground, we'll take the next chance. And the next. On and on until we win..." She shrugged a little because, even with the extra fighters in the Mandos and the Rebel Shock Trooper, they were still likely to lose. "Or the chances are spent. The Death Star plans are down there."

She turned a little towards Cassian. "Cassian, K-2, Kaleine, and I will find them. We'll find a way to find them."

Cassian stepped up beside her. "Melshi, Pao, Baze, Chirrut, you'll take the main squad along with the Mandos. Move east and get wide of the ship. Find a position between here and the tower. Once you get to the best spot light the place up. Make 10 men feel like a hundred."

There was a ripple of muttered agreement from the Pathfinders.

Cassian nodded once. "And get those troopers away from us."

Bodhi appeared behind Jyn and Cassian on the ladder to the cockpit. "What should I do?"

Cassian turned towards Bodhi. "Keep the engine running. You're our way outta here."

Bodhi nodded.

Everyone started moving to hide in the lower hold as the shuttle banked for landing. Jyn frowned as the children just disappeared. Jyn waved her hand through the space where a child had just been, but only touched air.

She looked at Cara, who shrugged, and then at the blue armored Mando, who patted her on the shoulder.

"You'll get used to them."

"Maybe." Jyn really didn't think she would. She turned and climbed into the cockpit as they touched down. She listened to the inspection team announcement and looked at Bodhi. "How big an inspection team?"

"Not b-big. Usually...four or so." Bodhi shuffled his googles nervously on his head. "They'll have an officer and a couple of Stormtroopers at least."

"Okay. We can use that." Jyn climbed back down the ladder and surveyed the empty looking hold. There was no noise to give away invisible children. Jyn moved slowly over to the lower hold hatch. "There'll be an inspection team come aboard. We'll knock them out for uniforms to use."

Baze nodded up at her. "Have the pilot send them down here. We'll take them without ripping any seams."

****

Bodhi tried not to fidget as the inspection team strode aboard. "I suppose you'd like a manifest?"

"It would be helpful, yes."

Bodhi glanced down through the open hatch into the lower hold teeming with Rebels. "Its just down here."

The officer huffed and started to step forward when the entire inspection party fell over right where they stood.

Bodhi blinked and backed up until his back was touching the ladder to the cockpit. The Stormtroopers seemed to levitate in the air and they started floating towards the tiny maintenance closet tucked behind the fresher. "What?"

Baze's head appeared above deck. "What's..." He stared at the floating Stormtroopers for a moment before climbing the rest of the way out. "You could have said you were going to do the knocking out."

A child sized Stormtrooper appeared out of thin air, but Bodhi didn't even startle. They didn't make him feel frightened at all. It was very disconcerting in a completely restful way that Bodhi knew he should be very upset about, but he couldn't make himself upset about it.

The officer's uniform started stripping itself off the officer's body.

"We're on a schedule. The Death Star plans are only the most important mission objective. They aren't our only objective."

Bodhi let the new lady with the pretty long brown hair pat him on the arm. "I'm the pilot."

"Yes, the children say you are most definitely the pilot. And I'm Padmé." She tugged him towards the cockpit access ladder. "Let's go see if anyone seems to notice the delay in the inspection team reappearing from the shuttle, hmmm?"

"Alright." Bodhi allowed himself to be lead. The suspect restfulness followed him into the cockpit. "They don't know where to look, you know?"

"Yes, I listened to children explain they don't exactly know where the plans are held since everyone seems to have died during the battle in the children's past."

Bodhi blinked hard and watched the pattern of patrolling troopers carefully. "I don't think I like time travel."

Padmé smiled and patted the back of his hand. "I don't think anyone _likes_ it. Not even the children."

****

Cassian always felt uncomfortable when he passed as an Imperial officer. He never felt scrubbed enough to match their clean appearances. He adjusted the lay of his jacket as Jyn folded more of the length of her pant legs into her boots to try to disguise that she was several inches shorter than the flight controller she was replacing.

Baze took ahold of Jyn's shoulder as she straightened up. "Good luck, little sister."

Jyn smiled at him and turned to Cassian as her smiled widened. Cassian couldn't help but smile back. 

One of the children appeared between them and Cassian had to suppress a flinch. Jyn jerked back a tiny bit before stilling.

"Kaleine says we're to offer to fold you into our link." The boy look back and forth between them as he held out a hand. "It'll be helpful." He narrowed his eyes and waggled his hand back and forth. "The Mandos already said yes."

Jyn huffed. "That's not going to..."

Cassian held out his hand. "Fine."

Jyn turned towards him. "Really?"

Cassian shrugged. It wasn't that he was afraid, but more...feeling like he should feel more awed than he actually felt. He held his hand out just under the boy's hand. The touch brought with it...Oh.

Cassian suddenly had more intel than any operation he'd ever been on. The platoon of ex-Stormtroopers, the Mandos, the Rebel Shock Trooper, some of the Pathfinders, even the Guardians. Cassian smiled at the begrudging feeling Baze was swimming in. They were all just _there_ next to him. Everyone was themself, but also him at the same time.

Jyn was staring at him with her uncertain expression edging towards worried.

Cassian grinned at her. He held out his hand towards her. "Trust me?"

She bit the inside of her cheek before nodding once and take their joined hands in her own.

_Starddust._

Jyn sucked in a sharp breath and blinked a couple of times. Then she settled into the complicated dance that was the children's battle focus with ease. Cassian moved with her by his shoulder as K-2 came from the cockpit to join them.

There was no need for words as they strode down the shuttle's ramp with Kaleine and Kanamar on either side of them appearing to be full grown Stormtroopers. K-2 walked slightly behind Cassian and it was odd to hear K-2's clanking the way other people heard it.

The first steps out in plain sight of the rest of the Imperials milling about should have be nerve racking, but no one even glanced their direction as Cassian's group moved into the transport box.

As the blast doors of the transport box and the landing pad hatch started to close K-2 shifted. "I have a bad feeling..."

Cassian turned his head towards K-2 as he hissed, "K-2!"

Jyn didn't move as she told K-2 to be quiet.

As they rode the line away from their landing pad, Cassian concentrated on listening to the movements of the group spreading out from the shuttle.

****

The Pathfinders broke out into their squads, each with an explosive charge, and a landing pad to reach.

Din followed the red robed sorcerer...Chirrut, whispered the Foundlings' battle focus. Din kept his hold on his blaster loose, but firm, and followed Chirrut, who couldn't see, as the Pathfinders angled away to setup parallel paths to give them a wider swath of jungle to control.

Chirrut stopped and cocked his head to one side before swooping into the bushes along their path.

Din followed and kept low as two Stormtroopers walked past talking to each other about equipment upgrades. 

Baze moved silently up beside Din just as Chirrut swept out into the path and took down both Stormtroopers in a few well placed strikes.

Baze moved down the path and struck another Stormtrooper as the movement of the Pathfinders sweeping by caught the unlucky Stormtrooper's attention.

The Trooper went down before they could signal for help.

Din was pleased with their progress as he listened with part of his attention to the rest of the battle focus and how far spread the Pathfinders were getting. Cara's annoyance at the sallow water her end of the advice was trudging through was amusing.

Din kept Chirrut's back covered as he swept down another Stormtrooper. A ways away Baze electrocuted a Stormtrooper and pulled him into the bushes.

As they came up onto the edge of another landing pad, several of the Foundlings caught up with them. Din hunkered down behind crates between Chirrut, Baze, and one of the Pathfinders. The Foundlings were crowded to their backs as they silently watched the Imps milling about on the pad.

****

Cassian told K-2 they were going to need a map even as Kaleine's part of the battle focus starting filling in a mental map as the children got close enough to Troopers to...Cassian looked at Kaleine's illusion of an adult Stormtrooper. "You're reading their minds?"

"Only the really loud thoughts."

Kanamar snorted. "Useful thoughts." Her voice was quiet and Cassian got the impression from the battle focus that she didn't talk often.

Kaleine's illusion shrugged. "Those too."

Cassian took a breathe and let it out slowly as K-2 captured another security droid to hack for a map.

He helped Jyn keep watch on the hallway that connected to the alcove Kaleine and Kanamar had pushed K-2 and his captured droid into. K-2 hacked the droid as Cassian tried to not think about the chances K-2 would lose to the other droid.

K-2 hadn't lost in the timeline the children had told them about. Without a map they couldn't have done this the first time around so therefore K-2 would be fine. He repeated it to himself that K-2 would be fine as he watched Stormtroopers cross the hallway's junction. Everything would be fine.

****

Jyn could still hear the echo of her father's nickname for her even through all the impressions and statuses of everyone else wrapped up in Kaleine's Force web. She watched down the hallway as K-2 hacked the other droid and tried not to think about what would happen if they failed.

K-2 dropped the other droid and Jyn turned with the others to watch him straighten up and tell them just how screwed they really were.

"There are 89 Stormtroopers in our path. We will make it only 33% of the way before we are killed."

Kaleine snorted. "Smuggler General says to never state the odds."

Jyn traded looks with Cassian.

He pulled out his comm and looked down the hallway both directions as he spoke. "Melshi, talk to me."

" _Ready. Ready. Standing by._ "

Jyn nodded to Cassian's questioning look and Kaleine's Force-backed wordless question in her head.

"Light it up."

****

Paz kept watch from near the edge of their shuttle's pad alongside Lyra Erso as word was given and the lead Pathfinder blew their laid charges.

Across the complex explosions tore through everything. The sense the Foundlings had for other life forces winked out in several places as the explosions caught up Stormtroopers and officers alike.

Paz grinned behind his helmet and clapped Lyra on the shoulder. She grinned a him and turned to keep watch. Paz kept his heavy blaster ready as he stood guard watching his fire arc. They would need their shuttle intact if they were going to escape by the end of this.

****

Baze stood as their shiny Mando did and started mowing down the Troopers coming from the transport line's hatchway.

Beside them, from behind his own crate, Chirrut fired his lightbow. 

Around them the Pathfinders added their fire. 

The children also were firing at the oncoming wave of Troopers. Baze quickly decided he would gladly go to their future, so he could find and kill all the Imps that had forced these children to be so deadly efficient in their fire patterns.

****

K-2 lead them onwards and Cassian wondered if Kaleine already knew where they were going as they entered a control room.

The officer behind the control terminal asked he could help them as K-2 stepped closer.

"That won't be necessary." K-2 brought his fist down hard onto the top of the officer's head.

****

Bodhi watched their immediate area and listened to the chaos on the radio channel beside a Pathfinder and Padmé. As the call for all pads to give a status report came across, Bodhi had a brilliant idea. He grabbed up the mic.

"This is pad 2. Pad 2. I spot 40 Rebels heading West on pad 2." Bodhi pointed at the Pathfinder staring at him. "Get on there. Tell him you're pinned down by Rebels on Pad 5."

He exchanged grins with Padmé as the Pathfinder yelled desperately into the mic.

"This is Pad 5! We're being overrun! Help us!"

Bodhi smiled at the Pathfinder when he held the mic for Bodhi to take back. "Good job."

The Pathfinder shrugged. "You had the idea."

Bodhi blinked. He had, hadn't he? It was odd. He could think so much more easily then he'd been able to since...Since...Bodhi took a breath and Padmé took his hand in hers.

"Hey, Pilot."

He looked at her and blinked. "I'm the pilot."

She nodded. "Yes." She gestured towards the mic with her free hand. "Any other pads we can be?"

Bodhi grinned. "We need more voices."

****

Jyn and Cassian used the downed officer's hand to try to get the Vault doors open while K-2 looked for their file and the children fortified the blast doors. 

She was about to suggest the officer's other hand when Cassian yelled to K-2 and the droid yelled back to use the right hand.

That worked and the Vault's door slid open to reveal two towers of data storage devices. Huge towers. Jyn stepped into the small control room with Cassian. Oh, Maker, there were so many data storage devices.

****

Din stood and kept firing at the continuous wave of Stormtroopers and Shore Troopers. He kept expecting to be dinged at least a few times by blaster bolts, but not a single bolt had hit any of the Pathfinders or the two sorcerers, _Chirrut and Baze_ , said the Foundlings' battle focus.

Din blow out a breath and tried to concentrate on hitting everyone he was aiming at. There was a low noise starting to pull at Chirrut's attention. Din cocked his head, even as he continued firing, trying to place the noise as Chirrut hunkered down and turned his head to better hear it.

Their individual awareness condensed into a shared string of silent cussing at the same time.

Chirrut started to stand and yelled, "Baze! Baze!"

Baze turned towards Chirrut as Din moved to grab the arm of the nearest Pathfinder. "What?"

"Run!" Chirrut had gathered up his weapons and moved to do what he was yelling for Baze to do.

Baze turned, trying to find what had Chirrut upset, he could feel it now in the battle focus as the children started grabbing Pathfinders and the Mando pushed a Pathfinder to follow Chirrut.

The AT-ACT clomped from the tree-line as one of the Pathfinders the children hadn't yet reached screamed, " _Karabast!_ AT-ACT!"

The got the rest of them moving. Baze could feel the children deciding if a battle tactic he'd never seen used, that they felt was old, would change the battle's timing too much or if just leading the AT-ACT around would be enough as everyone ran.

The AT-ACT's blasts were hitting, but they weren't hurting or throwing their people around. Baze kept in front of Chirrut as they ran, even though his bad leg should have had him lagging several steps behind.

Baze kept moving.

****

General Antoc Merrick dropped from hyperspace right on top of a pair of Star Destroyers as the Rebel Fleet amassed around him.

Admiral Raddus called for check in and Merrick said he was standing by as his squadron formed up on him as more and more ships dropped in.

"Blue Squadron get to the surface before they close that gate."

Merrick grimaced to himself even as he acknowledged, "Copy you, Admiral" They were going to have to race that shield gate. "Blue Squadron, on me!"

It was going to be a terrible race. He listened to his squadron's chatter even as he concentrated on dodging the defense fire dogging his dive.

It was going to be close. He made it through and watched his display with one eye as he tried to work out where they were headed as the rest of his squadron followed him.

The gate snapped closed and he listened to two of his men die and the last three request to join other squadrons as they made it out of their dives.

Merrick didn't have a moment to spare for loses as he tried to pinpoint where the Rebels he needed to support were.

****

Cassian startled as K-2 announced the Rebel Fleet had arrived. 

Kaleine looked at him from where she was sealing a blast door. "We told you."

Cassian huffed. "Yes, but knowing and _knowing_ are different things." He ignored the two children staring at him like he was crazy to turn towards Jyn.

K-2 sounded worried as he said, "They've locked down the base. They've closed the shield gate."

Cassian turned with Jyn to look at K-2.

Jyn stepped closer to K-2. "What does that mean?"

K-2 didn't say anything. 

Jyn turned to him. "We're trapped?"

Cassian wanted to say they were going to get out, but there were so many lives the children were tracking and so many data storage devices to go through if they couldn't find the file's location... He nodded slightly as he tried to think.

K-2's optics blinked for several moments. "We could transmit the plans to the Rebel Fleet."

_Stardust_

Cassian tried to shake his head to clear the echo of Jyn's nickname from his thoughts. The children weren't sure how they'd managed to signal the Fleet the first time around. It wasn't going to just happen on its own, was it?

K-2 babbled about size of the data files and taking down the shield gate as Cassian tried to work out the larger picture. 

The children were ranged out across more than just the beach, the jungle, and the landing pads. Cassian tried to place where Noilo's handful of children were as K-2 finished talking.

He shook his head again and raised his comm. "Bodhi. Bodhi, can you hear me?" He realized some of the children were in the Citadel Tower besides Kaleine and Kanamar. "Bodhi, tell me you're out there. Bodhi?"

" _I'm here. I was standing by. They've started fighting. The base is on lockdown._ "

Cassian pushed down his panic. The children had landed on their shuttle in the middle of a hyperspace jump, they could handle an Imperial base. He turned away from everyone to concentrate on Bodhi. "I know. Listen to me. The Rebel Fleet is up there. Like the children said it would be. You've gotta tell them to blow a hole in the shield gate so we can transmit the plans."

" _Wait. I can't. I-I'm not hooked into the...the comms tower. We're not tied in._ "

Cassian frowned at Bodhi's stutter and licked his lips as the the layout of the base from Kaleine's battle focus told him just how far the hookup was from Bodhi's pad. "It's the only way we're getting them out of here. Find a way!"

He turned back towards the group and told K-2 to cover their backs as he headed back into the data vault.

****

Jyn could feel Cassian's worry expanding to include the children that had been moving through the lower levels of the complex. She watched him head back into the data vault and started to follow.

She stopped and glanced down at her blaster. If K-2 was covering their backs he'd need it more than she would if the blast doors didn't hold out. She moved over to him and held the blaster towards him. "Here, you'll need this."

K-2 stared at her.

"You wanted one, right?" She waggled the blaster a him a bit in invitation.

K-2 took the weapon. "Your behavior, Jyn Erso, is continually unexpected."

She smiled a bit and then turned and followed Cassian as he called for her.

****

General Merrick angled for an AT-ACT that was chasing a group of Rebels. And...was that a Mandalorian? Merrick didn't get a great look at the shiny armored person running with Rebels away from the AT-ACT. It was enough that he was with them and not firing on them.

Merrick blasted the AT-ACT as he blew past, hitting it just as it started to realign the head from a ground blast knocking it out of firing position. Merrick grinned wide as the AT-ACT didn't stand up to that.

He moved to circle as the remaining squadron followed in his wake.

****

Bodhi grabbed up a line reel and turned towards the Pathfinder following him. "Get ready. We're gonna have to go out there."

The Pathfinder watched him. "What are you doing?"

Bodhi concentrated on getting the line reel onto his back. "They've closed the shield gate." He looked up at the Pathfinder. "We're stuck here unless the little Stormtroopers have a way out. We're stuck, but the Rebel Fleet are pulling in."

Padmé nodded to him from where she watched at the top of the ladder access to the cockpit.

Bodhi tried to explain it to the Pathfinders gathering around him. "We just have to get a signal strong enough to get through to them and let them know that we're trapped down here." Well, they'd already know that if they were up in space above the shield gate, but Bodhi didn't have time to explain it in detail to his protection detail.

He blinked. They were his protection detail, weren't they? Not guarding him to make sure he didn't leave without everyone, but protection from the Troopers jogging past their open ramp at irregular intervals. The thought was more soothing than Bodhi had a right to feel.

Bodhi waved a hand out towards the war zone off the end of their ramp. "For that, we have to connect to the communications tower. Now, I can patch us in over here," He pointed at the access point that he didn't have codes for, "...the landing pad. But you have to get on the radio. Get one of the guys out there to find a master switch. Get them to activate the connection between us and that comms tower."

The Pathfinders traded looks. 

Bodhi pressed his hands together. "Okay? Then go!"

They hurried to obey.

****

Merrick kept an eye on their U-Wing as it circled, firing on a knee joint of an AT-ACT to bring it down. He fired at the bottom belly of another open cargo AT-ACT. It blew apart nicely as they swooped by.

Merrick grinned to himself as the squadron pulled up to set up for another pass.

****

Cassian stared up at the seemingly never ending data storage devices. Kanamar patted his forearm and cranked her neck to look down the tower. There was even more never ending data storage devices going down out of sight.

K-2's voice came through the console in front of them. "Schematic bank, data tower two."

Cassian looked across the badly labeled Imperial controls. "How do I find that?"

"Searching."

One of the terminals starting flashing data impossibly fast.

"I can locate the tape, but you'll need to use the handles for extraction."

Cassian and Jyn both looked at the handles hanging placidly from the ceiling. He took off the itchy officer's cap and tried powering up the handles. "What am I supposed to do with this?" One small twitch of the controls and a ring flashed up the data tower in front of him. "Whoa!"

It took him a few flicks to get used to the sensitivity of the thing, but it'd do.

The vault door to K-2 closed and both him and Jyn turned to look. Kanamar kept her attention on the tower. Neither of the adults were watching as tape after tape disappeared from their slots and floated steadily down the towers. In their places illusions of tapes sprang up.

****

K-2 listened to the Stormtroopers trying to open one of the blast doors and closed the vault door to give Cassian more time. He turned his optics towards the tiny Stormtrooper child beside him. "Cassian will live?"

She smiled up at him. "I give you my word as a representative of Princess General Leia Organa."

K-2 nodded.

Cassian's voice came through the console. "K, what's going on out there?"

K-2 allowed the child to clamber onto his back and the blast door opened as the Stormtroopers overrode it. K-2 gave a thought to trying to bluff, but he knew he was terrible at it. He simply threw around the Troopers, their weight easier to move than his memory banks said it should be.

As he turned back to the console a blaster went off. K-2 grabbed up Jyn's gifted blaster and shot down the remaining Stormtrooper. He then stared at the hovering blaster bolt.

"I hadn't realized that was what you meant by blaster proofing." He stepped out of the way and the bolt flew into the far wall.

Kaleine patted the side of his head. "That wasn't your blaster proofing." She pointed at the console. "Our timeline is tightening. We need to get this done."

****

Sergeant Ruescott Melshi raced through the thinning jungle to catch up to the rest of the Pathfinders on the beach.

" _Melshi! Melshi, come in. Are you there?_ " It was Corporal Tonc on comms. " _Bodhi sent a signal from here. He's patching us in, but you guys have to open up a line for the tower._ "

Melshi stripped off his hat and looked up at the X-Wings zipping by overhead. "How? Please advise."

" _There's a master switch at the base of the comm tower._ "

Melshi mentally cursed Imperial designs. "Master switch? Describe. What are we looking for?"

He checked himself and a nearby little not-Stormtrooper over for injuries as he waited for Tonc to talk again.

****

Merrick could see little spots of white amongst his people's spots. They needed reinforcements. "U-Wings, reinforce those troops on the beach." He tried to get a better look as they ran another pass. "All fighters on me. We have to shield them from air attack."

The less the troops had to deal with the faster they'd be able to cut down the Imperials among them. He kept one eye on the U-Wing drooping troops and the other on the sky watching for the weirdly shaped TIEs.

Merrick rolled trying to keep the TIE-like enemy ship from getting a lock. Blue Five shot the enemy fighter off Merrick's tail as they twisted up past the largest tower.

****

Jyn read down the file list. "Hyperspace tracking, navigational systems."

K-2 voice came through the console. "Two screens down. Structural engineering. Open that one."

"Project code names: Stellarsphere, Mark Omega, Pax Aurora, War-Mantle, Cluster Prism, Blacksaber..."

Cassian could feel Jyn's startlement through the battle focus. "What?"

"Stardust."

Cassian blinked as Jyn looked at him.

"That's it."

He _knew_ , but he still said, "How do you know that?" He needed to hear it out loud. That she'd been right. That her father _had_ planted a weakness and named it in such a way only his daughter would immediately know it.

She smiled just a little at him, like she understood. Like she knew that he knew, but was willing to say it for his sake. "I know because it's me."

Cassian smiled a little back at hearing it said. _Stardust._

****

Bodhi jacked in a started reeling out line. He didn't know if he had enough to reach back to the shuttle and he certainly couldn't go asking Flight Control where another reel might be.

He cursed as he got the line caught on a short vent tower. He hurried back to pull it loose enough as he heard the pad's hatch open to let through the clanking of Troopers. 

If he could get it to come loose...Just a little more...

"Hey, you! Identify yourself."

Bodhi slowly stood up, pushing himself up off his knees. If he was going to die it should be in the shuttle, his ship. Not out here on the ground, bound down to the sandy soil.

He turned to try to talk his way out of it. "I can..."

The blast that hit the Sand Trooper threw him several feet back.

The rest of the Sand Troopers scrambled, yelling about incoming fire.

Bodhi turned and grabbed at the line even as he dropped down behind a crate. He wasn't sure if he hadn't taken some shrapnel from the Trooper's armor blowing apart. 

A tiny Stormtrooper appeared at his elbow and the line detangled itself from around the short vent tower. "Pilot, when you need help you can ask for it."

Bodhi just stared as the line smoothed itself out back the way he'd come, the extra length reeling itself up without a sound he could hear over the blaster fire.

****

Cassian kept grinning at Jyn as he spoke through the console to K-2. "K, we need the file for Stardust."

K-2 repeated, "Stardust."

One of the data storage devices started blinking green far up one of the tower. Cassian and Jyn craned their necks to look at it through the control room's windows.

"That's it."

Cassian nodded and moved the handles to bring the retrieval rig to the right spot. Just as he pulled the data storage device from the tower with the retrieval rig the power went down. "K?"

"Climb. Climb! You can still send the file to the Rebel Fleet." There were blaster noises over the line. "If they open the shield gate you can broadcast from the tower. Locking the vault door now. Goodbye."

Cassian turned towards the door clanking the locks into place. "K?...K!" He rounded on Kanamar, who was already pushing on the window into the tower with her little booted feet. "What the kriff?"

"That's a prohibited word, you know." She kicked out the window after a few bucking kicks and stood up on the console. "The plans are the most important, but they aren't our only objective. He has our chip. We'll be able to locate him in 34 ABY, Commander."

Cassian turned from her back towards the locked door and back again. "He's...It..." He turned to Jyn, who was eying the child and the climb. "Jyn..." He trailed off, because what was he going to say? His best friend was a cranky droid and he didn't want to lose him? That he couldn't be sure they were going to pull this off and how was he going to go on if K-2 wasn't there to frustrate him?

Jyn took his elbow and hauled him towards the window. "We have to go."

****

K-2 clanked down the hallway, pleased that no incoming blaster fire seemed to be able to hit him. His passenger was clinging to his back and firing back at the Stormtroopers with deadly accuracy.

The little blaster Jyn had given him was tucked along his torso where his passenger had assured him it wouldn't be lost. She'd patted his knuckles and told him he'd always have it if he wanted it. Then she'd magnetized it to him.

Streaming out behind him was a huge group of data storage devices floating along with them. As they turned a corner they ran into another of the child-sized Stormtroopers.

"Kaleine, the X-Wings are rolling and curving a _lot_."

His passenger clambered down off his back. She waved the data storage devices into a pile near them.

"I'll go help. You found the beskar, Noilo?"

"Yes, I think it'll work like you wanted." He gestured towards the next hallway junction. "Planets that are vaults is a terrible idea. Even for Imperials."

"As long as we can cut this vault off from the rest."

K-2 followed them around another corner and found another vault door like the one he'd locked Cassian behind. This one standing open. 

Kaleine patted K-2 on the leg. "I'm sorry you'll have to wait so long." The data storage devices floated from around the corner into the open vault. She patted him again. "Thank you for looking for the search list for us."

K-2 ambled in and surveyed the small area they'd cleared. There was just enough room for six or so astromech droids to crowd in with him. "You will protect Cassian?"

"I promised." She smiled up at him and then put her small helmet back on. "I know you don't believe you'll get to see it, but we'll make sure he gets to rest, K-2SO."

K-2 smoothed his hand over the top of her helmet. "You may call me K-2." He settled in the corner by the door and folded himself down for low-power storage mode.

****

"Bodhi, are you there? Did you call the fleet?"

Bodhi eyed the open distance from his position to the shuttle. Even with the unkinked line he didn't think he had enough length to make it. "I can't get to the shuttle." Blaster fire hit his crate and Bodhi flinched back. "I can't plug in."

The panic he should be feeling wasn't there and Bodhi sounded frantic, but he wasn't _feeling_ frantic as he listened to Cassian.

"You have to. They have to hit that gate. If the shield's open, we can send the plans."

Bodhi sucked in a breath and looked at the little Stormtrooper huddle down beside him. He peeked back out at the shuttle and could see Padmé inside the shuttle, like the children had said she had to stay, beckoning to him.

He screwed his eyes shut and ran for it. He could hear the Pathfinders firing. The Shock Trooper lady and blue Mando's voices yelling and Bodhi hoped they were alright as he kept low, running for the ramp.

The line flowed out behind him just like it should as he raced up the ramp, past Padmé, and he collapsed to his knees next to the jack. He plugged in. He'd had enough line!

****

General Merrick hated going head to head with these TIE-like ships. They were able to turn very tight and...There went Blue Nine, blown out of the sky on his port side. Merrick banked and rolled through another explosion.

He picked up enemy contacts behind him as Blue Two informed him. He tried scanning around him to find the contact for a few moments, which while instinctual, was stupid.

It gave the TIE enough time to lock and his starboard lower engine was hit. Merrick held onto the controls, yelling wordlessly, as they were hit again and plummeted.

His last thought was that he hoped the rest of his squadron would make it out.

Except, as it turned out, it wasn't his last thought after all. 

Merrick felt his acceleration just stop. He blinked as his ship went on into the ground without him. He and his astromech floated down through the resulting explosion, but there was no damage to them.

Merrick patted his droid as the distressed beeps trailed off as the explosion dissipated to revel a pair of child-sized Stormtroopers on the ground near the wreckage of his X-Wing. The one that had just gone right through him. Or he'd gone through it, maybe?

He wasn't sure how to term it. As his boots touched the ground the nearest of the children grabbed ahold of his hand.

"Come on, we've got to get you on a transport box out to Pad 9."

Merrick stumbled along after the child in a daze until he realized his droid wasn't there anymore. "What?" He tried to blink this weird death dream away, but all that got him was Blue Nine standing in a transport box looking even more bewildered than he felt.

"We'd have asked beforehand if you wanted saved, of course, but there wasn't exactly any time to do so." The child reached into the box and slapped the controls with their little gloved hand. "You'll be alright. Get on the shuttle. We've the rest of your squadron to save."

The door snapped closed as soon as the child's hand retreated through the opening.

Merrick hadn't felt this lost in a long time. "What?"

Calum Gram, Blue Nine, came to stand near him. "My ship just blew up around me." He waved his hands at the transport box's ceiling as it started to move. "They just...I just..." He waved his hands some more. "My droid floated down and then away."

Merrick had lost his droid too, hadn't he? He turned a slow circle trying to get his brain out of the trench of we-are-dying he seemed to be stuck in. "Mine too." He leaned against the wall and then just slid down it on legs that no longer would hold him. "My ship went through me." He patted himself down.

Gram knelt down next to him. "Me too, General." Gram pulled on Merrick's helmet to get him to turn his head towards him. "We aren't dead."

Were they? It felt like they should be. Children-sized Stormtroopers wasn't exactly standard issue for the Empire, but it seemed a stupid thing for his brain to make up as he died. He patted himself down again. "Why Pad 9?"

Gram shrugged and flopped onto his butt to sit near Merrick. "The kid that saved me said it's in Rogue One's control."

Okay, Merrick could live with that, since he wasn't currently dying.

****

Din watched the U-Wing curve down with an engine hit. "Baze."

Baze turned his head. "I see it."

Just as it should have hit the beach in front of them, the crew flew out of the U-Wing and landed in soft sand piles near them. The U-Wing continued on and struck several Stormtroopers on its way down.

One of the Pathfinders ahead of them motioned them forward. "Come on!"

Coming in to land on the far side of the lagoon was a dark ship in a shape Din didn't have a name for right off. It unloaded Death Troopers into the shallow water of the lagoon.

The Death Troopers encoded comm chatter resolved itself into actual chatter after a few moments.

Din glanced down at one of the Foundlings following him.

The child's head tilt was amused. "Their encryption is ancient."

The Death Troopers' added fire pushed the Rebels with their rescued U-Wing crew towards one of the transport hatches. It was near where Melshi had said they needed to go so Din allowed the fire to get them huddled up on the door.

There were enough Troopers out there to make it interesting.

****

Jyn climbed out of the window just behind Kanamar. The child just floated themself over to the tower and started gamely climbing it. Jyn eyed the drop, looked at Cassian, took solace in the absence of anxiety from Kanamar, and jumped for the tower.

She caught on and started climbing. She listened to Cassian make the same jump. He caught on to the tower as she had and they climbed.

****

Melshi huddled down next to the Mando and the Guardians in the mouth of the blast doors to the transport line. The console looked like it was out in the open, because of course it was. Imperials and their damned stupid design layouts.

He was looking over the rate of incoming fire and the placement of the console when his comm lit up.

" _Melshi? Melshi. Come in, please. I'm tied in at my end. I just need an open line._ "

"Hang on." Melshi looked at the others. "The master switch." He nodded towards the exposed console. "It's over near that console."

One of the reenforcement Pathfinders yelled, "I'm going!" He stepped out right into an oncoming blaster bolt. The Pathfinder went down with a groan and their little not-Stormtrooper pulled him back into cover.

"I hadn't gotten you blaster proofed!" The child dug their hand through the layers of armor and cloth to reach the gaping wound. "Stay _here_!"

****

Jyn outdistanced Cassian quickly as they climbed. She reached the retrieval rig. "I've got it!" She yanked on the device and it came out much faster than she'd thought it would. The power of her pull swung her arm out and nearly threw her off the side of the tower.

"You okay?" Cassian grabbed for her flailing arm and steadied her.

She didn't answer as she secured the device to her belt at the small of her back and started climbing again. She'd think about if the children would have, could have, saved her if she fell off the tower later. Long after she was back on solid ground.

Just as she got into the rhythm of climbing a maintenance door opened and a pair of Death Troopers started firing on them.

She heard Cassian yell her name as she scrambled to put the tower between herself and the incoming fire. He started firing back as they both tried to work their way around the tower.

A near hit by a bolt startled her into letting go with one hand at the wrong moment, making her have to swing back in again to keep moving.

She got on around to the back of the tower as Cassian fired on...kriff, that was Krennic with the two Death Troopers.

One of the Death Troopers took a hit and plummeted down the space between the tower and the wall. It was such a long way down. Jyn could feel the moment he hit the bottom and winked out of the sense the children were keeping on everyone.

Jyn concentrated on climbing.

****

Din kept the vulnerable Pathfinder and the Foundling in cover as the Foundling worked their magic to save the downed man. Din hoped the Foundling wouldn't fall over like his Foundling would, but it would just have to be what it was. Din would deal with it when it happened.

"I'm one with the Force, the Force is with me."

Din turned his head to find the blind sorcerer, Chirrut, standing straight and tall moving slowly out into the open.

The battle focus of the children shifted as though pulled to one side.

Chirrut moved forward with determination, chanting over and over again, "I'm one with the Force, the Force is with me."

Baze screamed Chirrut's name in desperation from Din's other side.

Din glanced down at the Foundling's bent helmeted head and then at Chirrut's back as he advanced through blaster fire that should have already hit him.

There was no choice. No time. No handy Foundlings that weren't already busy holding onto someone's life with their little gloved hands.

Din stood up and followed Chirrut.

****

Cassian was in a crap position. His left arm was holding him up for now as he traded shots with Krennic, the bastard, but he'd have to shift more out of cover to get into a position where he could climb on around the tower.

He looked up the tower were Jyn was climbing. "Keep going! Keep going!"

He just needed to hit Krennic and it would buy him the time he needed...A blaster bolt came in and just went through him. It startled Cassian enough he left go with his left hand and fell.

He struck supports on the way down and he could hear Jyn's concerned shout.

As he landed on a platform lower down than the level of the window they'd started from, Cassian huffed. He was...alive. He could feel the pain from the strikes, but it wasn't registering right, or all the way, or he was just imagining it.

He waited until Krennic disappeared from view before he pushed himself upright and looked down at himself. No blaster holes. No broken bones? He patted himself down as he watched Jyn continue her climb.

****

Chirrut kept up his chant. Felt the Force gather around him like a thicker shield than the children's blaster proofing. He walked for the sense of mechanical that was straight out in the direction Melshi had been focused.

He ignored Baze's pleading. This was important. This was...necessary. The Force flowed and Chirrut followed.

He could feel the blaster bolts whizzing past on all sides. Chirrut kept chanting, and he kept walking.

"Chirrut, come back!"

He bumped into the console just as Baze's newest pleading scream reached him. Chirrut smiled. This was good. He just needed the right switch.

"Just to the right of your right hand."

Chirrut blinked and shifted his hand and threw the switch. "You followed me."

The Mandalorian's armor's bending of the Force shifted from behind Chirrut to his left side. "I'm more naturally blaster proof than you are."

Chirrut smiled. "The Force is with us."

****

Bodhi exclaimed as the connection opened and he could get through. Padmé kept watch at his shoulder as Bodhi threw switches to get him the channel he needed.

Bodhi flicked another switch. "This is Rogue One calling any Alliance ships that can hear me." He pulled his goggles off when there was no immediate response. "Is there anybody out there? This is Rogue One. Come in, over."

" _This is Admiral Raddus, Rogue One. We hear you._ "

Bodhi laughed. "We have the plans." He took a breath so he'd make sense when he explained. So he could explain. "They found the Death Star plans. They have to transmit them from the communications tower. You have to take down the shield gate. It's the only way they're gonna get them through."

" _Stand by, Rogue One. We're on it._ "

Bodhi smiled. "This is for you, Galen." He watched a thermal detonator fly past Padmé and bounce along the back wall. They weren't going to be there to help everyone escape...

****

Chirrut turned back towards Baze's screams pleading with him to come with him. Of course, Chirrut would go with him. Baze needn't worry when the Force was with them.

He heard the whistle of a blaster bolt as it hit the storage tank's vent just past the console they were leaving.

Chirrut had just enough time to wonder at the force of the blast when he realized the Mando's arms were around him and they were in the air. "The Force saved us."

The Mando huffed in his ear. "I saved you. This mysterious Force had nothing to do with it."

Chirrut just smiled and kept ahold of his staff as they flew.

****

Baze was frantic to get Chirrut out of there. Blaster proofed or not, the middle of active fire from Death Troopers was not the place for Chirrut to be. He saw the explosion and heard the little Force-sensitive child make a hurt noise by the prone Pathfinder.

He was suddenly alone. Cut off from the sense of the others. Cut off from Chirrut. He didn't even know where he'd landed. If there was enough left to land.

"Chirrut!" Baze ran out blindly, looking for Chirrut among the downed bodies of Troopers. There was no sign of the Mando or his Chirrut.

Baze panted as he turned in a circle looking for any sign of where Chirrut had landed. "I'm here, I'm here. Don't go, Chirrut." 

He turned his eyes to the advancing Death Troopers. They were responsible. He needed Chirrut and he was...gone.

Baze cock his heavy repeating blaster. "The Force is with me and I'm one with the Force."

He couldn't feel it. The Force. He was probably too angry. Chirrut would have laughed at him using the chant this way after so long denying the existence of the Force. _Chirrut._

"The Force is with me and I'm one with the Force."

****

Bodhi could only watch as the detonator zipped up and back out of the shuttle to explode at the feet of the Shore Troopers' line.

...Okay, maybe they would live. Bodhi turned his head to look at the little Stormtrooper with his little chest heaving.

"You okay?"

The child nodded and answered through their panting. "Fine. You can't talk to the Fleet anymore. You didn't the first time."

Bodhi blinked. Oh. He turned his head as Rebels started streaming up his ramp, waved along by the blue armored Mandalorian. He climbed the ladder to his cockpit numbly. That was where he'd died the first time around. Bodhi dropped into his seat.

Padmé touched his shoulder. "Pilot?"

Bodhi blinked. He'd died then, but he hadn't died this time. He started pre-flight checks. They were going to need to start picking up people. "I'm alright. I'm the pilot."

****

Baze dropped each Death Trooper methodically as he chanted, "The Force is with me and I'm one with the Force."

They fired back at him, their chatter inconsequential, their fire just as useless as Baze kept moving forward. Kept killing them for them having taken Chirrut from him.

One of their bolts when through his chest. It didn't touch him other than to pass through. Baze fell down from the non-pain of it. He should hurt. He should be dead with Chirrut.

He watched a Death Trooper with a thermal detonator came over the sand mound. He shoot him before the Trooper could throw the thing. As the Trooper rolled to the bottom of the mound, the detonator in his hand, Baze watched passively.

He turned his head to look for Chirrut one last time as he waited for the blast to kill him.

The detonator clicked and died.

Baze turned back to stare at the little Stormtrooper child pulling on his shoulders suddenly.

"Kaleine didn't go to all that trouble to expand our links to include most of you all to just have you cut yourself out of it like that." The child yanked on Baze until he was sitting up. "We need to start gathering people up and here you are trying to die for no reason."

Baze just stared as the child pulled her little glove off. "I have plenty of reason."

She huffed and jammed her hot little hand against his dirty forehead. "Stop being so dramatic."

Baze tried to keep up his walls, but it had been so long since he practiced. Since there'd been Jedi to commune with. Since everything, most everyone, had...died. His breath hitched as the child baring down on him was joined by more children. More Force.

The connection was sudden, through, unwelcome...

Baze whimpered. " _Chirrut._ "

And _there_ Chirrut was nestled in the Force flying across the battlefield with the shiny Mando. Ooooh, they'd gone up and out of the explosion. Baze pulled the child, Koja, the connection told him, against himself in a fierce hug.

"I didn't look up."

The child patted him on the head. "People never do." She gave him a few more moments to be joyfully ecstatic at Chirrut's survival before she started wiggling to be free. "Come on, we've got Pathfinders to round up."

Baze followed. Chirrut's chant, their chant, rang in the back of his mind.

_I'm one with the Force, the Force is with me._

****

Jyn watched the vent aperture open and close, worrying in the back of her mind about Cassian, and watched as Kanamar floated herself through it. Jyn eyed the structure of the area looking for handholds when Kanamar appeared dangling upside down through the opening.

"Come on. It'll stay open until you are through."

Jyn swung herself out under the opening and threw herself through it as Kanamar moved out of the way. Sure enough the opening closed just after Jyn cleared it.

They scrambled on up through another ladder access and out onto the top of the Tower. Just under the transmission dish.

Jyn looked around at the fighters blasting each other from the skies. There had to be an access port or something...

Kanamar pointed and Jyn moved over to the console under the dish. Sure enough there was a port just big enough for the data storage device to fit. Jyn shoved it in place and waited for the machinery to pull it in.

She went to through the lever for transmission when the automated voice told them they needed to reset the alignment, because of course they did.

Jyn looked around as Kanamar watched the fighters. Jyn could sense in the battle focus Kanamar telling counterparts when to catch pilots and astromechs.

Turning, Jyn spotted the control port on the end of the walkway access. Well, alright, that was just sticking out into the fighters' battle space a little too far.

She headed for it, pulling her blaster to make herself feel a little better. It wouldn't stop her being killed if a fighter sideswiped the walkway, but it still made her a little less nervous.

She got to the controls and through the lever she hoped would be enough to make this thing work. And it seemed happy. The automated voice announcing it was ready to transmit.

Jyn knew at the moment this was were it was all going to go haywire. One of the Imperial fighters was firing, well, Jyn wasn't sure it was firing at _her_ not that it mattered because it kriffing hit the walkway ahead of and behind her as she tried to reach the Tower again.

She nearly rolled off the walkway, under the railing, but she felt the shove of Kanamar in the Force pushing her up. Jyn limped forward, her leg hurting from shrapnel and the strain of nearly falling off the walkway.

Krennic appeared with his blaster drawn.

Jyn could care less at this point there was only one thing left for her to do. She moved forward a couple of more steps before stopping as Krennic yelled.

"Who are you?"

Jyn smirked at the bastard. "You know who I am." She gave him a second for it to sink in. "I'm Jyn Erso. Daughter of Galen and Lyra. You've lost."

"Oh, I have, have I?" He pulled his shocked expression into one of righteous outrage.

"My father's revenge. He built a flaw in the Death Star. He put a fuse in the middle of your machine and I've just told the entire galaxy how to light it." She wanted so badly to tell him it would blow up before the month was out, but she didn't know if he'd get off this terrible planet or not. The children hadn't said.

Krennic shifted his hold on his blaster. "The shield is up. Your signal will never reach the Rebel base. All your ships in the air will be destroyed. I lose nothing but time. You, on the other hand die with the Rebellion."

The blaster bolt Jyn was expecting from Krennic didn't come from him. It came from the side. And not Kanamar's side either. Jyn watched Krennic collapse and then looked past him to _Cassian_ standing there with his blaster pointed at Krennic's crumpled form.

Jyn smiled at Cassian. He was leaning against a pillar and was bracing his blaster steady with both hands, but he smiled back at her.

She limped forward fast and leaned against the console as she threw the lever to send the files.

It showed transmitting, the automated voice agreed that they were transmitting.

Kanamar made a startled noise and turned her face up towards the sky. 

Jyn looked at Cassian and limped over to him. He was still pointing his blaster at Krennic and Jyn turned to go over and beat the bastard to death.

Cassian grabbed her arm and nearly had them both on the ground from pulling her back. "Leave it. Leave it!"

Jyn let him get them braced against the pillar, even as she couldn't take her eyes off her father's killer.

Cassian wrapped his arm around her back. "That's it. That's it." They wobbled as he tried to catch his balance and Jyn tried to compensate. "Let's go."

As they limped towards the elevator, Kanamar slipped in on the other side of Cassian to help support him. Jyn grabbed onto Cassian's hand where it hung near her neck his left arm slung across her shoulders.

"Do you think anybody's listening?" He sounded almost wistful.

Jyn _knew_. And Cassian was right that knowing and _knowing_ were different things. "I do. Someone's out there." She reisited the urge to ask Kanamar exactly who.

They clambered into the elevator. 

"Come on."

Kanamar suddenly leaned harder against them. "Ooooh."

Jyn pulled them all to lean against the elevator wall as it started down. "What is it?"

Kanamar had her little helmet turned up towards a corner of the ceiling. "The Death Star."

"Okay. Just hold on." Jyn pulled the child's head down and tucked her in against their sides as she traded looks with Cassian.

At the bottom of the Tower, they emerged from a blast door, passing dead Troopers on their way. They staggered out to the edge of the beach as the Death Star's wave of destruction grew in the distance. Racing for them.

This was it then. Jyn tightened her arm around the others. At least the plans had gotten out. The Rebels would blow up the Death Star next week. They had and would win. Jyn smiled and leaned her head against Cassian's shoulder.

"Your father would have been proud of you, Jyn."

She smiled and grabbed Cassian's hand tight in her own.

Then, Kanamar took hold of Jyn's belt.

"Hey." Cassian stiffened and Jyn knew by that that Kanamar had taken ahold of him too.

"What are...?" Jyn had just enough time to start to ask her question before they were leaving the ground behind.

They curved around the Tower and suddenly there was their shuttle, ramp open, packed with people. Jyn laughed as many hands pulled them in.

The ramp shut behind them.

****


	13. Sharing is Best

****

Peli blinked as the whole group just disappeared before her eyes. She checked around the yard, but nope, there was just the kiddo and the golden Mando left behind with her. "So."

The Mando handed her the kid and ordered the other children back into the house from where they were spilling out the house's door. "Clear all the sand from the interior."

There was a chorus of affirmatives from the children and they jostled for position as they too disappeared. Peli smiled at their noise. Even louder than when they'd been hidden in her office. She bounced the kiddo in her arms.

" _Ib'tuur jatne tuur ash'ad kyr'amur._ "

Peli frowned as she tried to parse the Mando's words. The kiddo tilted his little head like he was listening intently to the Mando'a being spoken as well. "What's that now?"

"Today is a good day for someone else to die."

Peli nodded. "Very true." She tickled the kiddo's ear point. "Definitely someone other than our people, right kiddo?"

The kid giggled and chirped. He held his little arms out towards the Mando and burbled in her direction. 

She gently took the kid back. "Let us find food, shall we?"

The kiddo squealed at the mention of food.

Peli watched them go in and turned her attention to the ships they'd brought. The damage to the blue Mando's ship was going to be a pain to patch. She traced a bulge in the hull. It was a wonder the thing had held air pressure. She ducked inside and started making a list of the repairs needed.

She happily worked until a sound caught her attention. Peli moved back out of the ship trying to trace the sound. It wasn't the sand shifting noise of a krayt dragon. It wasn't an approaching speeder. It was getting louder though.

Peli frowned as the Mando came out of the house. "You hear it too?"

The Mando scanned their surroundings. "I hear it, but I do not know what it is."

"Me neither." Peli followed in the Mando's wake as they moved away from the house.

Suddenly, there was a screech noise like a ship shearing itself in half. Peli threw herself down as the Mando did the same. Where they'd been standing, Peli had a flash impression of a ship.

Imperial shuttle, standard for at least a decade in the Imperial fleet. The flash passed them and it was gone as fast as it had appeared. The noise disappeared with it. Peli pushed herself up and shook sand from her hair.

There was a dip in the sand dune they'd been standing on that hadn't been there a moment ago. In the dip were her two reckless Mandos and Cara laying flat out on their backs.

The blue Mando groaned. "I hate time travel."

Cara groaned, rolled onto her side, and threw up.

Peli put her hands on her hips. "That didn't take near as long as we figured it would."

The shiny Mando pushed to his feet and swayed for a moment before stilling. "It was hours for us."

Peli nodded and moved over to Cara. She handed the poor lady a hydration tab. "You gonna die on us?"

Cara shook her head and drank down the whole tab before she looked up at Peli. "Thanks. No, I think I'll live."

Peli patted her shoulder and moved over to nudge the blue Mando's boot with her own foot. "Victory?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I think so." He heaved himself up and pulled her into a one arm hug.

She shoved on him. "You certainly smell like you've been in a battle."

He gave a tired chuckle.

The kiddo squealed from the arms of the Mando lady and leaned hard towards the shiny Mando.

He got to his feet and gently took the kid from the other Mando. "Hey, womp rat. No time travel for you, alright?"

The kid burbled and leaned against the Mando's chest plate.

Peli reached out and rubbed the tip of the kid's ear. "You've got a good father, huh, kiddo?"

The kid snapped his head around and for a moment Peli thought she'd hurt his ear, but no, he was staring at the next dune that had been in the shuttle's line movement.

Peli took the kid as he was thrust at her as the Mandos moved towards the dune. Cara shifted to stand between Peli and dune as well.

****

Din pushed the kid into Peli's willing arms and moved towards the dune. Maybe Kaleine had landed the shuttle further on? He readied his blaster as he and Paz scaled the rise. Behind them came the Armorer. He glanced back to see Cara standing guard on Peli and the kid.

Refocusing, Din pushed forward with Paz at his shoulder.

They found a lone human male in the sand on the other side. The man scrambled backwards away from them, sputtering, and clutching his own chest near his heart.

Din holstered his blaster as soon as he got a good look at the man. The New Republic uniform was unmistakable even though the absurd hat was missing. Din absently wondered if the hat was still on the prison ship. What had the guy's name been again? 

He thought hard, trying to remember, even as he spread his empty hands to try to show the man it was alright. Ah, yeah, Davan? He thought it had been Davan. "Hey, easy, Davan."

Paz lowered his weapon and turned his head to look at Din.

Din crouched down and caught Davan's scrambling hands. "Easy. You're alright."

"I was...dead." The man took a sharp breath and turned pleading eyes towards Din. "I'm pretty sure I was dead."

"You probably were for a little while." Din didn't say he'd certainly looked dead when Din had carefully placed him in an alcove out of the way of the fight he'd known was coming when he'd taken control of the prison ship from the rest of Rin's crew.

Davan looked at Paz and then back to him. "You tried to keep them from killing me."

"I did." Din didn't voice he'd done a shit job of it. They both knew what had happened.

Davan patted his chest again. "The knife thing is gone?"

"Xi'an took it back."

Paz was suddenly right at Din's elbow. "When the hell did you have to deal with that crazy _di'kut_ again?"

Din didn't protest that Xi'an had never been an idiot. A ruthless predator, maybe, but not an idiot. He shrugged instead and pulled Davan to his feet. "Come on, let's go inside."

Davan brushed sand off himself and looked around. "Where am I?"

Din directed Davan over the dune and past the Armorer as he explained where they were.

****

Paz wanted to corner Din and get out of him how he'd ended up on a New Republic ship with Xi'an. The last he'd known Din hadn't talked to any of that crew since before the New Republic was official. He took Din's Foundling from Peli as Din all but shoved the young Davan guy into the house.

"Hey, kid." Paz smiled as the kid coo'd at him. "Yeah, we both love your _buir_ , don't we?"

Cara fell in step with him as they approached the house's door. "What's that mean?"

Paz lifted his chin enough to make his helmet come up so Cara's eyes were lined up with the visor. "It means parent."

Cara smiled softly and patted the kid on the back. "He's easy to love, huh?"

Paz blinked. Huh. He hooked his arm in hers and stirred them down beside the house instead of in to it. "Talk with me a moment."

She easily went with him. "Yeah, what are we talking about?"

He eased her around so they could both lean against the house's wall. "Din is easy to love."

She fidgeted. "But?"

He shifted the kid to one arm and took her hand in his own. "No, just what I said." He frowned as he tried to think how to approve of her without losing Din to her. "He...we like you."

She raised her eyebrows and looked out over the dunes as her smiled widened a little. "You?"

Paz huffed. "He had something bad happen to him and he's been skittish ever since. I've been trying to wait patiently on him."

"You, patient?"

He elbowed her gently. "Hush."

She turned their joined hands over. "I'm about to ask you about how your Mando rules work, but I'm not asking just to get around them, okay?"

Paz nodded. "Ask."

"If you're involved with an outsider how's the helmet thing work?"

Paz hummed and shifted the kid as he squirmed. "Our faces are the window to our inner selves. We only share them with our own Clan."

"Oh, okay." She sounded a little sad and a lot resigned. Like she was being rejected.

Paz tugged her hand towards himself. "No, I mean...If you are our Clan, you are our Clan."

She smiled crookedly at him. "Did that make better sense in your head?"

Paz huffed and rolled his eyes. "You understood what I meant."

Cara pulled their joined hands to rest against her armored stomach. "Yeah, I got it." She squeezed his hand and dropped the hold to reach for the kid. "So, kid, how are we going to go about convincing your _buir_ we'd like to be his Clan, huh?" She glanced up at him. "Think our Mando here has any ideas?"

Paz smiled as the kid started babbling at them, waving his little arms around.

****

The Armorer herded the Foundlings into sitting down to eat. She settled the young New Republic man in-between two of the most steady of the Foundlings. The man was still skittish, touching his chest and looking around like he was dazed every few minutes.

The reports from both Din and Paz painted a picture of children far too comfortable with battle. She had hoped Kaleine and her platoon would reappear so she could see for herself that the children had come through their battle intact. 

She shooed Paz and Din into separate rooms with their portions. She took portions for herself and Peli into Paz's ship.

Peli grinned as she took her food. "He sure made a mess of this ship."

"I understand you stripped the trackers from this ship for him."

Peli nodded. "I did. Tried to armor it up as well as I could afford." She smiled. "Don't tell him, but I could hear the children when he holed them up in my office while I worked on the ship. I hoped it'd be enough to get them safely where he was taking them."

"Your work has done well for my Tribe."

"Thank you." Peli waggled a tool at her. "Are you like the shiny Mando, don't take the helmet off in front of folk?"

"That is correct."

Peli gestured towards the cabin's open door. "The hatch closes again. We can still talk cause I haven't gotten all the holes airtight, but I'll promise not to peek at you."

She inclined her head for a moment and took her food into the cabin. "Thank you." The cabin hatch stuttered as it closed.

Peli cursed and kicked the hatch from her side of it. "Stupid thing. I'll get working after dinner."

"There is no hurry." She settled against the wall that separated them.

"Well, you never know. Better to be prepared, I'd think." Peli chattered about the repairs and the woeful lack of blue paint as they ate.

As soon as she put her helmet back in place, she opened the hatch.

Peli cursed and kicked it as it stuck most of the way open. "Still needs some work."

She clasped Peli's shoulder gently. "We will repay you for your help."

With a smiled, Peli patted her hand. "Sure." She rummaged in the wall and started pulling wires out. "You know...I've got a lead on a Mandalorian that might be up in Mos Pelgo. Could be a distraction for your pair until some more of your people get here to help."

"It'd do them well to hunt together." She gathered up their dishes and started to turn to take them into the house when there was a flash of light.

"Kriff." Peli was at least sensible enough to duck behind her.

"Ouch."

Her visor cleared to show Kaleine with her armor askew, rubbing her left elbow. "Are you alright?"

Kaleine grinned and shoved her armor back into place. "Fine. I'm having trouble with the trajectories so I came to make sure they landed right." She frowned as she cocked her head. "I think I mistimed it though."

She gathered Kaleine against her side and held onto the child. The solid warm weight of the child eased her silent worry. "Your timing is acceptable."

Kaleine looked hopefully up at her. "Yeah?"

"Yes." She allowed Kaleine to wiggle away from the hold. "Your platoon?"

"They're fine. I just had a couple of retrievals skip oddly and I need to make sure they land in ships or on planets."

Peli moved out from behind her and looked Kaleine up and down. "Such as the young New Republic man inside, maybe?"

Kaleine turned her head towards the house. "Uhm...Oh, yes." She smiled as she picked her helmet up off the floor. "He made Din sad by dying and it wasn't really either of their faults anyway. Din didn't even throw him out with the trash afterwards." Kaleine turned back towards her. "Which reminds me, I need to know what Mandalorian death customs are important. Do you do escorts of honor like Commander Poe says happens for the Resistance?"

The Armorer blinked. She wanted to ask what the child meant by out with the trash, but at the same time she wanted to know why they were talking death customs. "Honor escorts are not required, but we do honor those that have fallen in battle."

"Even if they got vaporized and left their armor behind?"

She frowned and knelt down to Kaleine's eye level. Hopefully the child wasn't thinking about going to the Night of a Thousand Tears. "Even so. Why do you wish to know?"

Kaleine ran her fingers across the fur on the Armorer's shoulders. "It'll be important later. What happens if one of your Foundlings finds their parents after they swear the Creed? Do you make them quit being a Mandalorian or do the parents become part of the Clan?"

She carefully checked over Kaleine's armor and the child herself. "It would depend on the individual. Most hold to their Creed and adopt their prior family into their current one. Sometimes they leave the Tribe."

Kaleine nodded and held her weapon out between them. "Here you can check this too." She cocked her head. "What about the time difference? If Din and Paz say we're Clan Djarin Foundlings now, are we still Clan Djarin Foundlings in 34 ABY?"

"Yes." She stripped the weapon and checked the components before putting it back together. "Din's Clan of two has expanded very quickly."

Kaleine smiled wide and took back her weapon. "How many bars of beskar do I need to find you for each of my platoon?"

She put her hand on top of Kaleine's head. "All are your height?"

"One is slightly taller, but the rest are for now. Princess General says we're going to all be different in a few more months, but I don't know. I wasn't around enough Phase Two under-height Stormtroopers to know for sure."

She nodded and smoothed her hand down to rest on the back of Kaleine's neck. "We will adjust as needed." She knew the rough amount needed, but she was reluctant to require Kaleine to find so much. She barely thought the amount before Kaleine was nodding.

"That's not too bad. That includes some reserved for Foundlings, right? I know that's really important."

"Yes, _verd'ika_." She didn't comment on the child obviously reading her mind. She did focus a thought to tell the child not to time travel to the fall of Mandalore. "Come, let us check on the others." She held her hand out to the child.

Kaleine took her offered hand and smiled. "Most of them are getting ready to sleep. Are you going to have the whole Tribe live in the one house?"

She lifted Kaleine up and settled the child on her hip as the girl giggled. "No. I do not yet know where we'll all live, but I do know we will leave you some sign to find in 34 ABY."

Kaleine leaned her head against the Armorer's shoulder and yawned. "Oh, that'd be good. I'm only allowed to sense one-fifth of the galaxy at a time so it would have taken days to find you in the future if you move."

"One-fifth of the galaxy?" Peli whispered behind them as she followed them out of Paz's ship into the house.

****


End file.
